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MARC students are actively supported by Program Coordinator Meagan Pepper Estes and Graduate Assistant Coordinator Jacob Green, who meet with the trainees bi-weekly to offer professional development, academic assistance, and holistic support. Howlett says, “The NIH has realized over the last 10 to 20 years that in order for us to do better research, we need to have more diverse teams of scientists with different experiences and different creativity—great minds think differently. We’ve also got to think more about the well-being of the individual doing the research as well as the communities impacted by the research.” MARC is currently open to juniors at URI. While in the two-year program, trainees are provided a yearly $10,000 tuition scholarship, a monthly it so much easier knowing you have cheerleaders who are willing to help anytime.” - Nana Oblie “We share our struggles, our success stories, our time, our smiles, and our inspirational stories. We do this so we know we are not alone, and it makes

“The Ph.D. application process is not really talked about in college,” Sondhi says. “Everyone knows exactly how you apply to college, but in college when you are applying to a Ph.D. program you don’t necessarily have the same support. It can be confusing where to start, and a lot of times underrepresented students do not have people in our families who gave gone through the process that we can turn to. It is really helpful to have advisors who can walk you through it.”

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