CIRM internship program at CSUSB prepares students for top-tier research universities
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Bridges internship program at CSUSB caters to the hands-on experience and preparation of real-world research opportunities for its students. This program allows CSUSB students to flourish in their academics and has opened up opportunities to advance their scholarly research at prestigious universities.
CSUSB alumna Nicole Sparks ’12 calls the CIRM program at CSUSB “fulfilling” and “rewarding,” crediting the university for helping her get the career she has today.
She is currently a scientist and recipient of the University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the department of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology at the University of California, Riverside.
For alumna Rosyli Reveron-Thornton, ’12 ’14, the research she conducted in the CIRM Bridges program took her “to another level,” and she was accepted to several prominent universities, such as Stanford and Yale. She ultimately chose Stanford University’s School of Medicine.
Alumnus Andrew Salas ’15, a research specialist in the Stem Cell Analytics Core at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, calls his time in the CIRM program “instrumental,” and says it made him realize that this is the type of work he wants to do for the rest of his life.
While in the CIRM program, Laughing Bear Torrez Dulgeroff, ’08 ’12, studied stem cells. She is now a research scientist at Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc. in Redwood City, where she studies cancer therapeutics.
“While my research has kind of shifted from a number of different areas, I think the one thing that stayed intact is understanding how we can utilize all the information that we’re learning,” she said.
CIRM was created in 2004 by California voters to fund STEM cell research. The objective of the program is to prepare California’s undergraduate and graduate students for highly productive careers in stem cell research and therapy development.
