FIRST program gives first-year students direct research experience

When Marco Salgado was accepted into Colorado School of Mines, he was undecided on what major he wanted to pursue. Growing up in a small farming town in north Texas, where the oil business is important to the economy, he only knew of Mines’ strong reputation in that industry.

“Being from the north of Texas, oil and gas is a big part of the economy over there, so when I started thinking about college, I looked at universities with good petroleum programs,” Salgado said. “Of course, Mines is one of the top ones. I applied, not thinking I would even get in, but I did. And when I got accepted, I figured I’d give it a shot, even though I wasn’t sold on going into oil and gas. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do.”

Salgado did some searching online about what opportunities are available for first-year students at Mines, and that’s when he found the FIRST program.

FIRST – short for First-Year Innovation and Research Scholar Training – is a selective fellowship program for highly motivated first-year students at Mines to participate in research with a focus on innovation over the course of an academic year. FIRST students are introduced to academic research, connected with a faculty or graduate student mentor and take part in hands-on work in research labs on campus. At the conclusion of the paid fellowship, FIRST students present their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, which takes place twice a year.

Since 2023, the National Nuclear Security Administration has been providing funding for FIRST scholars to engage in research, an invaluable partnership that has supported fostering the next generation of researchers, said Lakshmi Krishna, founding director of Undergraduate Research Scholars.

“Getting students involved in research early is key to their academic and professional growth,” Krishna said. “To make this happen, we created a program just for first-year students, offering one-on-one advising and dedicated funding—helping them get off to a strong start in research. It’s no surprise that FIRST scholars are strongly represented among prestigious fellowships, such as the Goldwater and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program.”

For Salgado, FIRST was a way to expand his experience in the sciences, something he didn’t have access to in high school. Through FIRST, he connected with Andy Herring, professor of chemical and biological engineering and vice provost of strategic initiatives, who introduced Salgado to the field of electrochemistry.

“FIRST really is the reason that I was able to figure out, hey, this is what I want to do,” said Salgado, who is now majoring in chemical engineering and in his junior year at Mines. “I had no idea what electrochemistry was when I started, but I just thought it sounded cool. I figured I’d give it a shot, and now, three years later, this is the thing that I love and it’s what I want to do with my career.”

For Caitlyn Castellion, whose parents are both researchers, going into the sciences and conducting research was always in her future.

“Because of my parents, I basically grew up in labs, so I was like, ‘Why not?’” Castellion said. 

FIRST seemed like the perfect way to jump start her time at Mines. Castellion’s interest in gene therapeutics led her to Ramya Kumar, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. Kumar was recently awarded an NSF CAREER award for work studying the use of polymers in delivering genome-editing proteins in genetic therapies.

“The drugs of the future will be DNA-based drugs, so you need a completely different tool kit in order to make those kinds of drugs, and that’s where engineers are solely needed,” Kumar said. “There are a mix of skills that go into this research project. It’s a very exciting training opportunity for my students who are working on it, because they’ll be exposed to all aspects of this research, and Caitlyn is a good example – I’m sure she’ll be ready to pursue a PhD somewhere.”

For the project, Castellion has been working on developing substrates for cell cultures to grow stem cells. Working with Kumar exposed Castellion to how chemistry, which she is majoring in, is a vital part of gene therapeutics, and how STEM disciplines can overlap and work together. Being part of FIRST also helped Castellion master her time management skills.

“Having to learn to balance my research work on top of schoolwork was a really good thing to learn,” Castellion said. “It’s a lot to juggle, but I’ve had a 4.0 [grade point average] my whole time at Mines. I don’t think I could do well in classes without research work as well, because that’s something else to do that I really love, and I can also focus on that.”

Both Salgado and Castellion said they hope to work toward earning a PhD, continuing to do research in the fields they’ve grown to love while also teaching the next generation of scientists.

“I’d definitely like to do what Dr. Kumar does right now,” Castellion said. “She teaches and she has a research lab. That’s my ultimate goal.”