The University of San Diego serves as one of the National Science Foundation's "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) sites, and I have to say that this program is really making a difference both scientifically and to the lives of our students.

The scientific framework of this REU is "Climate Change Across The Various Scales of System Organization". That in itself is exciting - while this program is housed in the Division of Chemistry at NSF, ours is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, with a lot of chemists and biochemists, but also engineers, physicists, biologists, and ecologists. And these projects are really pushing forward our understanding in all of these fields, especially as they relate to climate change.

But perhaps more exciting is the pedagogical/broader impact framework for this program. Our site is working hard to engage more underrepresented groups (veterans. underrepresented minority students, first generation college students, etc) in STEM, and doing so by specifically targeting students from community colleges, where opportunities to get experience in science are fairly rare. We have an amazing group of 11 students working on various projects this summer, and I will hopefully provide some periodic updates, but for now, I just wanted to include a picture of (some) of our students and associates as we explored Mission Bay yesterday, enjoyed lunch on the water, and even found time to do some fish sampling and discuss graduate school, time management, and our favorite music.