Graduate Division

Promoting Graduate Education

GradEdge / JumpStart

A student and two faculty review a science poster presentation
Jordan Cortez (r), part of the 2019 Grad Edge/JumpStart cohort in Geological Sciences, discusses a
poster showing his research with faculty at the2019
Southern California Earthquake Center Annual Meeting in Palm Springs.

UCR is one of the most diverse, fast-growing campuses in the UC system. Our GradEdge/JumpStart program contributes to this growth and diversity by offering incoming under-represented graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics the opportunity to get a "jump start" on their professional and academic development as part of a supportive cohort. 

The eight-week summer program combines developmental seminars, community building activities, research activities, quantitative methods support, and guidance in preparing a fellowship application (for the NSF GRFP or Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship). The dates of the 2022 summer program are July 11th - September 2nd.  Please note that this program is offered as part of the student funding package rather than on an application basis. The program consists of the following components:

  • conduct research in a lab with a faculty mentor
  • attend a weekly fellowship writing class (for more information, see question #1 in our FAQ)
  • attend a weekly statistics and programming bootcamp 
  • attend a weekly developmental seminar 
  • participate in a "journal club" meeting conducted by a faculty member (once or twice during the program)
  • be invited to participate in additional community building events (not mandatory)

Information on which of these components will take place in person and which will be offered remotely will be posted later this Spring.

Thank you for your support of Jordan Cortez as part of the summer GradEdge/JumpStart program. It has made a huge difference in starting his grad career at UCR. He has done amazing work this summer, and we are both at the Southern California Earthquake Center annual meeting, where he is presenting his first research poster on the work he did this summer on the recent Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. He is incredibly well poised to start his first year as a grad student, with a research project already heading toward a publication. None of this would have been possible if he hadn’t been able to start in July.
Professor David Oglesby
Geological Sciences

For more information, contact:

Hillary Jenks, PhD
Director, GradSuccess
hillary.jenks@ucr.edu
Telephone: (951) 827-6113