Who we are
UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA) is a leading academic health center in the United States with a mission to make lives better through excellence in academics, biomedical research, and clinical care. Ideal candidates for STUROP are to be current first-year college undergraduates seeking research experience and mentorship, and who exhibit a wide variety of attributes including, but not limited to, a natural curiosity of health and disease, strong communication skills, hard-work ethics, and a sincere dedication to achieving goals.
Unique aspects of STUROP include its longitudinal nature, requiring students participate for three, consecutive years. This enables a comprehensive research training experience and development of an extensive and meaningful network of peers and mentors. The first phase of the STUROP program involves a week-long orientation, followed by an intensive, summer research immersion at UTHSA. Each STUROP scholar will have an assigned mentor-pair, one from UTHSA and one from their home institution, to support immediate research goals and longer-term career development. Mentors include a faculty member with an active research lab including a designated postdoctoral fellow or advanced graduate student to assist with hands-on training. In the school year phase of the program, scholars will participate in Fall and Spring Semester activities designed to develop their scientific interests, orient them to expectations in research settings, introduce the principles of responsible research, and socialize them to the research enterprise. The goal of all STUROP is to enable scholars to discern their future academic goals utilizing experiences and acquired knowledge, as they for successful entry to graduate or professional school.