Food Science Undergraduate Experiential Learning (FUEL) Scholars Program: a Yearlong REEU to Propel Students into a Career in Food Science

The UMass Food Science Undergraduate Research program is a yearlong REEU program to bring together academic laboratory research and industrial internships. The program will provide students three key educational components: (i) Mentorship and support to help students to optimize the professional and interpersonal skills needed to be successful in industrial internships and research labs (ii) Laboratory research experience with the excellent researchers at Department of Food Science at UMass Amherst and (iii) Industrial internship experience to translate base knowledge and laboratory to real-world problems in the food industry.The goal of this program is to provide experiential food science learning opportunities to undergraduate students in a research laboratory and at an industrial internship. The output will be to provide experience and skills to undergraduates to aid in pursuing graduate school and/or the food industry upon graduation. The outcome of this program will be a highly trained workforce in food science as well as solidified relationships with companies in the epicenter of food innovation. Ultimately, we hope that the positive experiences of the program will lead to future industry funding of the program to extend these student experiences for many years.Objective 1. Recruit and pair students with faculty. The FUEL Scholar program will advertise the opportunity on the UMass Amherst campus, other local campuses and among campuses, whose students can have a year of study at UMASS through the National Student Exchange program. Each spring, there will be an application and interview process. Successful applicants will be selected based upon academics, research interests, interpersonal skills, and applicant diversity.Objective 2. Mentor student success during laboratoryresearch and industrial internships. Students selected for the program will be paired with a faculty member and an industrial internship partner. When possible, we will connect academic research and industrial internship to strengthen learning.Objective 3.Programatic evaluation. Programmatic success will be evaluated. We will have a formal request for feedback from industrial internship sponsors, as well as monitoring student outcomes throughout their career (after graduation and five years post-graduation).