Building on established research to create new opportunities
The Earth Science department at UMSA has a long and impressive history involving students in research projects. In fact, most students are required to participate in a research project in order to obtain an undergraduate. However, the opportunities for students to participate in research beyond this level are limited. My goal is to help extend the life of already established projects at UMSA in order to provide more research opportunities for students in both Bolivia and the United States. At its core, this will involve collaborating with my Bolivia and North American colleagues in long term research projects that interested students will be able to join (and leave) at various levels and time frames. For example, at LCC, turnover is high and the students are exclusively at the introductory level, so any participation will need to fit their demanding schedules and have modest, yet, impactful contributions. The goal is for us to do the time consuming groundwork that will help provide the foundation for more detailed (and expensive) research projects that will take place at research universities in the United States (and elsewhere). Ideally, students who participate in the ground floor of these projects will themselves go on to continue their research at the larger and better funded universities. Part of the reasoning behind this overall goal is that graduate programs in the United States are often short (2 years) and funding and visas are limited, so projects need to be clearly defined at the start, and in many cases, samples need to already have been collected.