In November, the PREP@UCD scholars made our annual pilgrimage to ABRCMS for a few days of science, networking, professional development, and reconnecting with alumni, friends, and colleagues. Since 2018, ABRCMS has been an important part of our fall program, and this year was no exception. 

All PREP sites came together to kick off the conference with the official PREP Scholars Meet and Greet. Our crew surprised everyone and set a new standard for amping up the energy with an organized cheer (note the very cool hemiola that starts in the middle).

Of course, Fearless Leader Emeritus Dan Starr immediately shared it on social media. 

Carole had an opportunity to catch up with Alyssa Paparella (2019-2020 cohort), who gave a research talk AND organized an important and well-attended panel, Lessons from Disabled Scientists.

Everywhere we went, we encountered people who knew current PREP@UCD scholar Andrew Barber. The plenary talks were amazing and inspiring, the lines for food were long (....ummm..........but we won't comment on the "food" itself...), and Press Coffee got a lot of business from caffeine-deprived ABRCMS attendees (many thanks to PREP@UCD scholar Emari Mann for the tip).

Everyone rocked their poster!

After their poster presentations, both scholars and undergrads made the rounds of other graduate programs' booths to talk to faculty and graduate admissions staff, and many came away with augmented lists of potential graduate schools. Claudia Wang, an undergraduate affiliate from 2022-2023, now at the UMich PREP site, came by to say hello.

Several faculty who came to my poster told me, 'I'd love for you to apply to our PhD program.' Wow...                                                   

--Christian Torres

 

Visitors to the UC Davis booth on "UC Row" got recruited by our PREP scholars! We thank them for providing a scholars'-eye view of Davis and our university, and were so very proud of them all. They're the best!

And then we came home.