Trump's cuts threaten NSF REU programs
For decades, the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program has provided students with valuable summer research opportunities at top institutions. Now, at least a dozen programs have been canceled.
Saren Springer studies how and when embryos develop limbs, but she didn’t always see herself as a researcher. Growing up in rural Minnesota and attending a small liberal arts college with limited lab opportunities, her first research experience involved watering plants for a graduate student studying runoff effects—an unexpectedly calming routine that helped her navigate college as a first-generation student.
After her junior year, as she reconsidered her plan to become a doctor, Springer was selected for the University of Connecticut Physiology and Neurobiology Department’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the program gives students from smaller colleges hands-on research experience at larger institutions.
“The research that I was able to do at my liberal arts was very surface level, just getting me exposed to the idea of research. But actually being able to answer some sort of question was something that I didn’t really get until I did the REU,” Springer said.
The experience gave Springer “a glimpse into the actual career of becoming an academic researcher.” Now, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in physiology and neurobiology at the same University of Connecticut department where she first conducted research.
But with funding uncertainty, it’s unclear whether future students will have the same opportunity to follow in her footsteps.