Project ACE: ACtion for Equity has reached the end of its life cycle. Over the past five years, and thanks to the collaboration with Canutillo, Del Valle, and Gadsden High School, we had the privilege of positively impacting the lives of teachers and students who participated in our summer programs.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Lourdes Echegoyen, Dr. Karina Canaba, and the COURI team for their invaluable support, allowing our high school students to participate in their workshops and summer symposiums. We also sincerely thank the UTEP faculty who opened their research labs to host our students and teachers, giving them the opportunity to experience what it means to do hands-on scientific research.

We are especially grateful to COLART, the College of Engineering, College of Education, College of Health Sciences, and the College of Science, for allowing their faculty to take part in our program every summer since 2020. Their commitment to early engagement and the development of future scientists and professionals was essential to the success of this project.

We also want to acknowledge the many other departments that supported us administratively, including Human Resources (HR), the Purchasing Office, Research and Innovation, and Contracts & Grants (C&G), just to mention a few. Their collaboration enabled the smooth operation of every phase of the program.

We are thankful to Canutillo, Del Valle, and Gadsden High Schools for trusting us with their teachers and students and for allowing them to participate in our activities. We especially thank the families who, despite any challenges, were committed to bringing their children to the UTEP campus every summer.

To our high school students—thank you for trusting us and for sacrificing your summer vacations to participate in this life-changing experience.

On behalf of Dr. Osvaldo Morera, Dr. Thomas Boland, and Dr. Josefina Tinajero, we express our deepest gratitude to UTEP, the participating school districts, and the entire El Paso community for their support over these five years. While this may be goodbye for Project ACE, for us it is only see you soon. We will continue working with hope and determination to secure new grants that will allow us to keep promoting education in El Paso, TX, and surrounding areas, through one of the institutions most deeply committed to our community: UTEP.

Thank you all!

Dr. Osvaldo Morera, PI

Dr. Thomas Boland, Co-PI

Dr. Josefina Tinajero Co-PI

We want to congratulate the following students and teacher from Gadsden High school, New Mexico, on the greatest opportunity to join Project-ACE for our summer research program and explore the many opportunities they'll get to experience here at UTEP and compete against other students from across El Paso and Texas to be able to travel to this year

 BMES (Biomedical Engineering Society) conference.

Ms. Lucero Limas, a teacher at Gadsden

Miss Katherine Long, a student at Gadsden

Mr. Jesse James Ortega, a student at Gadsden

Here at Project-ACE, we congratulate you on the accomplishment you have achieved, as the long journey you have made has been difficult, and the time you have taken to complete your Ph.D. In addition to your commitment to helping your high school students at Del Valle HS, no matter what challenges they faced, you helped them no matter what in addition to be part of our Project-ACE program.

Thank you.

We are excited to hear that our Project-ACE faculty member, Thomas Boland, PhD., has been one of the 20 UTEP faculty who have been ranked among the world’s most cited researchers and among the top 2% within their specialty areas. 

https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2023/utep-faculty-members-named-to-list-of-worlds-top-researchers.html

*April Ruiz (Right side) Canutillo HS Student

We here at Project-ACE would like to be a proud sponsor to support April Ruiz, she will be attending the 2022 BMES conference in San Antonio, Texas. The Biomedical Engineering Society hosts a conference every year for high school students and their projects they present during the year as they compete against other BME students. This year we have April Ruiz from Canutillo High School, who presented her project on Characterization of Inkjet-Bioprinted Fibroblasts with RNA-Sequencing Analysis and Immunocytochemistry.

During the summer of 2022, COURI hosted a symposium here at UTEP for high school students with their teachers to present the research projects they worked on while attending Project-ACE summer research for five weeks. Students and teachers from across El Paso presented projects related to Biomedical Engineering and their results.