OCCAM: Integrating community college students into four-year STEM degrees through summer research experiences

Undergraduate research experiences are a key component of many physics programs: they provide valuable hands-on training in skills of relevance to the workforce, have strong positive effects on retention and success, and are crucial for successful applications to graduate programs. Community college (CC) students transferring into four-year degrees after two years at their CC are unlikely to find research mentors at their new institution until well into their transfer (effectively junior) year, putting them at a disadvantage in competing for research positions and demonstrating research impact in time for senior-year job or graduate applications. Hosting transfer students on campus for research rotations in the summer before their transfer provides a way to narrow this gap in opportunity, while also allowing them to ease into their new setting before the teaching term begins. I will describe some challenges faced, lessons learned, and outcomes delivered in developing OCCAM (Oregon Community College Access to Materials research), a research internship for incoming transfer students at the University of Oregon that matches students with PIs, provides stipend support, and includes additional mentorship and professional development. Now in its fifth year, OCCAM provides a proven and replicable model for setting transfer students up for success in their four-year degree and beyond.