What is START?
START is a research-training initiative designed to provide community college students with invaluable research experience. Our goal is to foster a culture of curiosity and scientific inquiry among students by providing hands-on research opportunities. We aim to make a meaningful impact on the academic and professional development of our START scholars early in their careers. 
 
What does mentorship at START look like?
Our approach to mentorship is arguably unconventional in the sense that our values are centered on kindness, community, appreciation, and service. We are interested in you as you bring your whole self to the team, and we recognize that you, the scholar, are inseparable from you, the person. Our success is dependent on you reaching your fullest potential, and we recognize that. We’ll be teaching you things you may not know, and you’ll be doing the same for us in other areas of life. We strongly believe in giving you access to our social capital and opportunities that are often gatekept in academia (i.e., authorship). We are here to help guide you and give you a hand up, rather than a handout. We intend to always make sure you know that you are needed, valued, seen, and appreciated for who you are and what you bring to our team.
 
Who is START for?
Our project is dedicated to offering a platform for students to explore various research areas and gain practical skills. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where students can collaborate and contribute to real-world research projects, thereby preparing them for future academic and professional endeavors in graduate school or the workforce.

What kind of research does the START group pursue?
We are actively working on a number of different projects within the discipline of health psychology (behavioral medicine). Some of the projects we're pursuing during the upcoming 26-27 year involve examining performance of statistical techniques that measure longitudinal relationships between sleep & depression, as well as stigma of mental illness and attitudes towards seeking care. Additionally, we are pursuing a validation study of a group-neutral internalized racism scale, as well as a qualitative study in Lattakia, Syria examining psychosocial determinants to medication nonadherence for people living with type 2 diabetes.