Salako is recruiting participants for a dissertation study, which focuses on understanding the research and mentoring experiences of community college transfer students in research labs. Participants aged 18 years or older are eligible for this study. The interested participant must be a community college transfer student in a STEM field, be in a Research lab for Fall 2026, be currently enrolled at NC State University, and be based in the United States. Interested participants will complete a pre- and post-skills set survey, a Card Sort Activity with a semi-structured interview, weekly submission of images with brief descriptions or captions and an image discussion interview. Please note that the two semi-structured interviews will be conducted in person. Participants will receive a $100 gift card for full participation.

Participation is voluntary, and interested individuals will be asked to complete a screening/eligibility survey that takes approximately 5-10 minutes.