The start of something bigger

The Community-Academic Scholars Poster Session and Celebration on August 5, 2026, marked the end of the CAS program’s eighth cohort—its biggest yet. Through new collaborations and support, CAS hosted 30 scholars, up from 19 scholars in 2025.

First, there was the Bug2School connection. Celina Trujillo, IHSI’s Research Development Manager for Community-Academic Partnerships, recalled seeing the Summer 2025 Bug2School posters at the annual STEM Career Exploration and Symposium.

“The Bug2School posters stopped me in my tracks. It was clear that their mentor had trained these students well in science communication,” Trujillo said. 

Seeing an opportunity for future scholars to benefit from this high-caliber science communication training, Trujillo connected with Carmen Blubaugh, a research scientist in the Department of Crop Sciences, as well as principal investigator of the Bug2School program, a multi-generational co-learning alliance between university researchers, college students, teachers, and school-age students that explores sustainable gardening practices. Blubaugh would lead the session on poster design, and the Bug2School Fellows would join the broader CAS program, adding seven talented undergraduate researchers to the cohort.

Then, in Spring 2026, IHSI Research Scientist Brandi Barnes received news from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Barnes’ proposal for the Illinois-Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research (I-SUMMER) program, an R25 education project, had received five years of funding!

Barnes, along with co-investigators Celina Trujillo, Doug Smith, professor of social work, and Cherie Avent, professor of educational psychology, were ready for the call. They reached out to colleagues and IHSI affiliates Jacinda Dariotis, professor of human development and family studies (HDFS), Rachel Hoopsick and Hyojung Kang, professors of health and kinesiology (HK), Charee Thompson, professor of communication, and Moses Okumu, professor of social work, who were ready and willing to serve as mentors to the new I-SUMMER cohort. Dariotis and Hoopsick also generously agreed to mentor three I-SUMMER scholars each, allowing for the program to support nine scholars in its first cohort.

In a matter of weeks, the I-SUMMER cohort was conducting research in tandem with their peers participating in the broader CAS cohort.

In all, the cohort grew to 30 undergraduates who were making an impact in the Urbana-Champaign community this summer.

Making an impact

The impacts became evident when the scholars presented their work at the poster session. IHSI Director Stephen Boppart was impressed by the scholars’ work.

"As I visited posters and talked to the scholars, I was amazed—and frankly overwhelmed—by the passion, enthusiasm, and knowledge; how this is just the start of something bigger,” he said. 

Boppart was not the only faculty member impressed with the scholars’ work. Academic mentors have invited at least sixteen of the scholars to continue conducting research with their labs this fall.

Youth Participatory Action Research

J Beto worked with Dariotis and Amy Leman, also an HDFS professor, and graduate student Erinn Thomas, as well as Youth Employment Services (YES) to implement a summer Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) experience with high school students from the Champaign Unit 4 School District. 

The team guided the students as they completed each stage of the research lifecycle, from determining research questions and conducting research to research dissemination. Their project culminated in a research poster sharing findings and recommendations for next steps. 

Jacinda was impressed with Beto’s contribution to the project.

“J’s commitment to delivering on a meaningful experience for the YPAR students is laudable,” said Dariotis. “She worked alongside the students, encouraged them to have stretch goals, and empowered them in each stage of the research process. Erinn and J facilitated an experience that will have a lasting impression on the students, many of whom are continuing as part of the Family Resiliency Center’s Youth Advisory Board this academic year.”

Beto, who is passionate about YPAR, will continue to work with Dariotis and Leman over the school year to refine their YPAR framework for application to a variety of topics. The team aims to reconvene with both new and returning students for Summer 2027.

A community guide

Bug2School Scholar Alan Medina, a Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) major, will also continue working with his CAS project this fall to finalize a guide that connects traditional herbal medicine with contemporary research into their applications.

Medina started by developing a literature review under the mentorship of Blubaugh, Dawn Blackman, founder and steward of the Randolph Street Community Garden, and Crystal Siltman, Farmer Training Program Manager for the Land Connection and a Master Urban Farmer. Blackman and Siltman offered guidance on the plants to feature.

Medina then worked with Blubaugh and the rest of the team to convert the literature review into Two-Eyed Seeing: The Pharmacological Science Behind Indigenous Plant Medicine an easy-to-use guide for community members interested in exploring traditional plant medicine.

A program to reduce hypertension

Isabel Jimenez will also continue working with her CAS mentor, Manabu Nakamura, professor of food science and human nutrition. This summer, Jimenez helped Nakamura and his team finalize materials and prepare for recruitment for the EMPOWER Hypertension study. 

Prior work with patients at Avicenna Community Health Center revealed an alarmingly high prevalence of hypertension. Nakamura and his team have developed a structured, evidence-based nutrition intervention designed to reduce blood pressure among adults receiving care at Avicenna Community Health Center. The EMPOWER Hypertension study will evaluate whether the intervention can help adults better manage high blood pressure.

Now, Jimenez and the team are recruiting participants for the 12-week (mostly virtual) dietary intervention. To reach the populations most in need of this intervention, they are tabling at Avicenna as well as at local food pantries. Jimenez will also help with participant coordination.

Eureka moments

While some experiences have resulted in tools to encourage health and well-being, not all projects resulted in such concrete results. Regardless of the outcome, Boppart urged the scholars to recognize how much they have accomplished in such a short time.

“Maybe you made a personal connection, or maybe you had a eureka moment with an idea that changed the way you think. Maybe that moment even changed your career path. Even if your work simply moved the needle a little bit forward on that research, all of that made an impact,” Boppart said.

Wonjin Yang had one of those moments. Yang reflected on her experience with Katherine Driggs-Campbell, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Wendy Rogers, an HK professor, as well as the ClarkLindsey Life Plan Community to explore how assistive robots can support older adults with navigating the life plan community.

“CAS not only made me think about my career but also made me think about ethics and responsibility and how to help others with my research,” Yang said.

The CAS experience also deepened the scholars’ appreciation for the value of community-engaged research. For Zahra Ghadeer, who plans to pursue an MD–PhD, the experience sparked her passion for community-engaged research.

Ghadeer worked with Anna Mendoza, professor of linguistics, and the Champaign-Urbana Refugee Center to help Afghan women refugees improve their English-language literacy, while exploring the underlying social, cultural, and linguistic factors that shape their learning experiences. This project was a departure from the research she encounters as an MCB major. 

“I had some experience in wet lab research, so this was a nice new experience for me,” Ghadeer said. “It has helped me confirm the fact that I want to do community-based research in the future.”

For Emily Depke, a neural engineering major, the experience reinforced her ambition to pursue a graduate degree and go into research. As part of the I-SUMMER cohort, Depke worked with fellow scholar Gurneer Sidhu, Hoopsick, and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD)’s Makiya Thomas, on a project that aims to shed light on the stressors facing non-prescribing, non-executive healthcare workers.

“CAS demonstrated to me the intellectual enrichment and deep value that comes from engaging in community-based research,” Depke said.

The start of something bigger

Doug Smith is excited for the future of the program—as are his collaborators. Smith, who served as an academic mentor this summer, has already heard from a community agency about collaborating on a Summer 2027 CAS project.

He appreciates how the program offers an opportunity for all participants to mutually benefit and how the program also meets the University of Illinois’ land grant mission.

“CAS hits all three pillars of our mission: research, teaching, and service to the community,” Smith said. “We are training the next generation of researchers and deepening our ties to the community.”