The Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program provides funding for pre-K through 12th grade projects to increase student involvement in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The main focus is to engage students at a young age to increase the number of students later pursuing degrees and careers in STEM fields, especially students who are traditionally underrepresented in those fields.
There are three main components to the SEPA program at MGI:
- Academic year tutoring
- Washington University undergraduate and graduate students work one-on-one or in small groups with local students to cover topics specific to their needs.
- ACT Tutoring on Saturdays for our partner school.
- Community Outreach
- WashU graduate students and GREG staff attend community events and work with local teachers to increase genomics knowledge around the St. Louis area.
- Summer research project
- Students work on a research project for a month with guidance and mentorship from WashU graduate students.
- The Summer 2023 project was about microbial communities and their links with term and preterm births in pregnant patients. Additionally, students looked at data from guinea pigs as a model organism for understanding preterm births.
- Our Summer 2024 program saw another great group of students analyze patient data and give fantastic presentations. Students looked at either the impact of the microbiome on preterm birth or skin microbiomes.
- Please check back in the spring of 2025 for our next program application.
Learn about the national SEPA program, supported by the National Institute of Health here.