I attended the Research Experience for Undergraduate Students at the University of Connecticut during the summer of 2015. I worked under Dr. Amy Howell and graduate student Drivya working on the Synthesis of Laureatin. After attending the REU program I continued my education at Central Connecticut State University and graduated with a BS in Chemistry. In the fall of 2016 I was a employed as a temporary Quality Control Technician for Charles River Laboratories in Storrs, CT and later hired for the permanent Quality Control Technician position. I am in charge of the Tissue Culture lab at CRL and also train new employees for the Serology lab. I work primarily with Avian vaccine components and absolutely love my job. I plan to start a graduate program in the Fall of 2018 as a Biological Anthropology major and then go on to my PhD in Forensic Anthropology. The research program at UCONN taught me many valuable things about working in the lab, organization, and also how to network efficiently. It was a very positive experience and I would recommend it to any undergraduate Chemistry major that is looking for the real lab experience. It helped me to adapt to the job I have today, and I could not be more grateful for that.

Jennifer Bento, REU 2010 alumna, joined the Polymer Program at the UConn Institute of Materials Sciences as a graduate student; she published her first paper: Hire, C. C.; Oyer, A. J.; Macek, G. E.; Bento, J. L.; Adamson, D. H., “Directed formation of silica by a non-peptide block copolymer enzyme mimic” J. Mat. Chem. B, 2013, 1, 1977-1984.