A Game-Changing New Way of Learning
Five REUs have recently joined BU’s campus as full-time students from around the country, transferring and pursuing their continued education.
By Danny Giancioppo:
Leaving your hometown, home state, even home country can be trying for any college student. From unpacking, to socializing, to getting to know a brand-new city, it can be an overstimulating experience. Many new and returning students at Boston University have and continue to face this head-on as the fall semester begins, and despite the maneuverability of BU’s campus, it can still be an overwhelming feat. In the case of five students from the Photonics Center’s summer 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, it was equal parts scary and informative.
At the Boston University Photonics Center, undergraduates from across the country can visit for a summer program known as the NSF (National Science Foundation) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, in which students can learn firsthand the new and advancing avenues of STEM research fields among distinguished professors, graduate students, and laboratories. In some cases, following the completion of the program, REUs pursue the opportunity to join Boston University as full-time students.
Mark Lucas (ENG/BME), Karina Mendoza (CAS/Neuroscience), and Destiny Kanu (ENG/ME) are each transferring from their previous undergraduate institutions to Boston University this fall, following last year’s experience. In addition, Anna Vena (ENG/BME) will be returning to pursue her master’s degree, and Nolan Vild (ENG/ECE) will be pursuing his PhD.
For Mark Lucas, it felt like a natural fit. “As a kid,” Lucas said, “I always really enjoyed learning about technology and science in general, but I also had a passion for biology.” While he attained his associate degree in engineering studies at Middle Georgia State, he knew he wanted to go further, and access even greater resources in the field of BME. When he applied to three REU programs around the country, Boston University was one he thought he’d never get into. As it happened, it was the one program that accepted him.
“When I got to BU, I had never worked in a research lab, ever,” said Lucas. “The experience broadened my understanding of BME (Biomedical Engineering) and gave me a better idea what my place in it was.”
“The professors here genuinely care about their students,” he added. “If you come to them, they’ll meet you halfway, as well. A lot of universities aren’t like that. And also, student life is a very big part of the university. It’s not a common thing, to have both of those aspects.”
Karina Mendoza, formerly of Dallas, Texas, shares these values. Having held a keen interest in neuroscience since high school, she wanted to further her understanding of biological mechanisms while studying at Dallas Community College. To grow out of her comfort zone, Mendoza signed up for the REU program at Boston University, traveling halfway across the country to get “a taste of the field to form a well-rounded decision on [her] major.” She not only honed her interests toward biomedical research, but found a university environment that felt the most comfortable to transfer into.
“After receiving my Associate of Science from Dallas College, I wanted to attend a university where I felt welcomed, had access to more resources, and could grow in my interests,” Mendoza said. “BU was the perfect place!”
Destiny Kanu of Bunker Hill Community College also wanted to try something new, where she could learn as she never had before. “As a whole package, you get to learn something new, you meet new people, live on campus, experience the whole campus life.”
Kanu moved to the U.S. from Nigeria in 2021 and attended Bunker Hill for some time thereafter. During her time in Nigeria, she was always “really interested in anything involving math, or calculation or problem-solving,” explaining that solving said problems always gave her a sense of satisfaction. During her time in community college, Kanu wasn’t living on campus, and had a limited understanding of the methods of research that went on in a lab.
“I didn’t know there was anything called a clean room,” Kanu said. “I didn’t know about photolithography, I didn’t know about etching. When I had new research experiences, I found out that what I learned at Boston University was very applicable, and truly helped me when I found new research experiences.” Such experiences honed Kanu’s interests in the wide-ranging STEM world, and led her to pursue a research internship at Harvard University this past summer, further preparing her for the field of industrial engineering at BU.
“As a whole package, you get to learn something new,” Kanu said, “you meet new people, live on campus, experience the whole campus life.”
The experience of leaving your home, and even your institution, isn’t limited to only undergraduate students, however. Master’s student Anna Vena has been undergoing the very same transition since moving to Boston from Wisconsin, where she completed her biomedical engineering degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Like her transferring contemporaries, Vena pursued the REU program at Boston University in the summer between her junior and senior year of undergrad. Studying in John White’s research group, Vena felt that she was provided a variety of options and research goals while at BU, and was encouraged by the student researchers in White’s lab to return as a master’s student once she finished her degree.
“I always knew that I wanted to directly go into my master’s right after undergrad,” Vena said. “I applied here for my undergrad as well. I really like the campus, and I love the atmosphere.” Getting support from the student body at BU made it feel even more like the right fit for her. “It felt like people genuinely cared about me and what I was doing here.”
“Coming into my master’s, it’s definitely really overwhelming trying to find labs,” Vena explained, discussing the complications she’s set to face as she begins her continued education. But the group she studied with has created a support system to help her along the way. “I cannot emphasize enough how amazing my lab was,” she said. “The grad students kept in touch with me throughout my senior year, while I was back home. They would reach out to me and ask me how my senior year was going. It was so nice to hear from them and know that I wasn’t just ‘there for the summer’ to them.”
Choosing the right lab is understandably Vena’s biggest piece of advice to any incoming STEM students at BU. It can make all the difference by surrounding yourself with a support system. Nolan Vild, PhD student, feels just the same.
Contrary to the other incoming students, Vild’s time at BU didn’t end after last summer. This most recent REU season, Vild served as technical coordinator for the 2023 REU and RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) cohorts, helping to ensure they received all the benefits he did last summer––and then some.
“I think almost everybody has this,” Vild said. “Where you take an intro class for engineering and they tell you about what chemical engineering is, and industrial engineering, and civil engineering.” When Vild and his friend were pitched on photonics, he was sold. “We were like, ‘dude you get to work with lasers and that seems awesome!’ And we switched our majors that day.”
It wasn’t until getting to BU that Vild discovered “how much fun research using photonics could be.” Coming from a music background, he saw the bridge between sound and optics, and melded it with a long-standing childhood interest in how things worked. Vild described himself as the child who took apart the pen to see how it worked, and loved owning trains for their mechanical complexity. Math and science came to Vild naturally, and when he reached BU, he wanted to not only continue that style of learning, but help others reach the same goal.
“Having these resources here is really game-changing in teaching me what I am capable of doing, and then providing me the resources to do that.” Providing that outlet to connect, for Vild, allows prospective students to see the wide-ranging options they’ll have at BU; from research interests to extracurriculars, to job opportunities.
During his time as technical coordinator this past summer, Nolan Vild assisted in procuring several opportunities for the REUs which he’d wished to see in his time, including scheduling new city spots to visit, as well as resume building activities; all of which, he hopes, will assist in the career advancement and confidence of this year’s REUs.
“For me this program [is] game-changing,” Vild said. “Nothing short of it.”
For these five new students, the journey to Boston University has been far-reaching and not without its share of change. However, their story at BU has just begun. Each has found their community on campus, their respective research interests, and their own professional path to carve forward.
