The Transfer to Excellence (TTE) Program challenges its community college participants to present their research at peer-reviewed conferences. Congratulations to seven alumni from the 2015 TTE cohort who met the challenge this fall by presenting at the 2015 National Conference of the Society for Advancement 2015 SACNAS Awards Ceremony of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the 2015 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Symposium TTE Students at 2015 SACNAS that was organized by Council on Undergraduate Research.

Shany Ben Artsy (Los Angeles Pierce College), Kimberley Fountain (Berkeley City College), Kamaria Ashley Kermah (El Camino College), Divyashish Kumar (College of San Mateo), Lakshika Ruwanpathirana (Los Angeles Pierce College), and Melissa Roberts (Diablo Valley College) presented the research they did under the TTE Program at 2015 SACNAS in Washington, DC. Among them, three students, K. Fountain, K. A. Kermah, and L. Ruwanpathirana, won the Student Presentation Awards. D. Kumar, K. A Kermah, and M. Roberts won travel scholarships from SACNAS to attend the conference.

Separately, Irving Garduno, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, presented the research he performed at Marvel Nanofabrication Laboratory of University of California, Berkeley at the Engineering Session of the 2015 REU Symposium that was held in the Atrium of the National Science Foundation. On hand to lend support was Dr Jeffrey Clarkson, Staff Scientist, who hosted and mentored Garduno during summer 2015.