SURES 2026 (Week of June 29th)

 On Monday, some of us were lucky to join Dr. Crawford's group and go boating/tubing/swimming at Laurel River Lake, followed by a late-night campfire and watching the moonbow at Cumberland Falls! 

"Moonlight will give moonbows under all the same conditions that the sun will give rainbows. However, moonlight even during a full moon is about a million times dimmer than sunlight, so you need a very dark environment, well away from cities and streetlights. And then you need to be at the right place and the right time. The moon is much brighter for a few days around full moon, and just after full moon the moon rises a bit after sunset, so that it will be dark and the moon will be low on eastern horizon." 

On Tuesday, we met Dr. Cetewayo Rashid and learned about his career journey and research. Some of us also attended a UK Medical School Admissions Session with Wendy Jackson, MD and Christopher Simmons, MD, PhD and were able to ask important questions about the application process. Due to the 4th of July Holiday, we had a break from Thursday activities and enjoyed a three-day weekend!

SURES 2026 (Week of June 22nd)

 On Tuesday, we met Dr. Olga Tsyusko-Unrine and learned about her career journey and research. On Thursday, we worked through a community building circle on mental health and got to know each other more by holding space for each person to share as much or as little as they wanted to. We then had our second career development session where we discussed the importance of networking, especially for student researchers interested in graduate/professional school or industry positions. We learned tips for networking in person and viewed established LinkedIn profiles of SURES alumni as examples. We then practiced our networking/interviewing skills with a challenge - to answer prompts or questions given to us without time to prepare. This allowed us to practice thinking on our feet while remaining professional and exercise our public speaking skills!

SURES 2026 (Week of June 15th)

 On Tuesday, we met Dr. Kevin Pearson and learned about his career journey and research. On Thursday, we had our first career development session where we learned about how to develop and maintain good resumes/CVs and tips on writing a good personal statement for graduate and professional applications. Next, we learned about environmental contaminants and teamed up with students from the KY-INBRE program to collect soil samples across campus to measure and analyze lead levels in different locations! On Friday, we took the day off in observance of Juneteenth.

SURES 2026 (Week of June 8th)

 On Tuesday morning, we met Dr. Stacy Stanifer and learned about her career journey and research. On Thursday, we learned about the origins and uses of medicinal plants and potted them in the planters we designed depending on their region of origin. 

We also learned about the importance of sustainability and did two activities to actively participate in sustainable efforts. Sam Radomski, one of our returning Near Peer Mentors, showed us how to upcycle t-shirts into cute tote bags! Sunny Ghuneim, our Program Coordinator, showed us how to turn plastic bags into plastic yarn that can be upcycled into items like coasters, plant holders, and more. This week we also received our Near Peer Mentor matches!

SURES 2026 (Week of June 1st)

 On Tuesday, some of us attended the UGR Summer Research Kickoff where we met other undergraduate researchers and had Kona Ice. On Thursday, our Global Gardens activity included learning about plants from different regions of the world. In groups, we chose a global region and then painted planters to represent our regions. Next, we met our potential Near Peer Mentors in a speed networking event. 

In the evening, some of us played pickleball with Dr. Chris Crawford and Physics and Astronomy REU students. On Saturday, some of us joined Dr. Crawford's group to tour Mammoth Cave. It was a very eventful and fun-filled first week!

SURES 2026 - Welcome and Orientation

 On May 26th, we welcomed our 2026 SURES cohort of 10 students joining us from Centre College, Idaho State University, Emory University, Washington College, Universidad del Sagrado Corazon, North Carolina A&T University, Western Kentucky University, and University of Kentucky. During orientation, we spent time getting to know each other and the program overview, and we received our UK ID badges. On the second day of orientation, we practiced hypothesis testing and reviewed mentee expectations, research ethics, how to keep a good laboratory notebook, and data interpretation. On Thursday, we met our research mentors and officially began our time in our labs!

Our last SURES event-the Presentations of the Posters

 

Our last week was busy as we worked on finalizing our posters and worked on our explanations of our projects.  Our poster session was terrific-we were joined by 53 other undergraduate researchers who were from the KY-INBRE, Markey STRONG and Astronomy/Physics programs.  We also welcomed the family and friends who joined us and celebrated our successes.