At SACNAS ‘All Are Welcome in Science’

By Keith Gillogly

It’s a milestone for the growing student group, which works to foster success of students and boost diversity within the STEM fields.

Jazmin Corral, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and founder and president of UB SACNAS, says the chapter will be eligible for full approval after its provisional year.

SACNAS, headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, is a longstanding inclusive organization dedicated to the success of Chicanos, Hispanics and Native Americans, from college students to professionals, in attaining advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in STEM, according to its website.

The organization has more than 150 official chapters across the U.S., Corral says, with UB hopefully adding to that number soon. 

Corral came to the U.S. from Mexico to pursue her undergraduate education at the University of Texas at El Paso. She had originally planned to go to medical school for the simple reason that many choose medicine: to help others.

But, she soon learned, there are many ways to help other people. As an undergraduate, she completed two research internships and quickly came to love the laboratory and the idea that scientific discovery can equally benefit people’s lives. These internship experiences also taught her more about how academic medicine and science in the U.S. operate, crucial for an international student new to the U.S.

While at the University of Texas, she attended a research conference in California. While browsing the vendors, she happened upon a Jacobs School table and picked up a flyer.

When applying to graduate schools years later, she remembered that flyer and applied to UB.

She says she was thrilled to be accepted to the Jacobs School’s doctoral program, where she now studies how receptor interactions trigger myelination in the peripheral nervous system and affect cell differentiation.

Upon arriving to UB in 2022, however, she noticed that the university had no SACNAS chapter.

In 2024, Corral met Gustavo Arrizabalaga, PhD, while at a research conference in Pennsylvania. Arrizabalaga is senior associate dean for faculty affairs and professor of microbiology and immunology.

Before coming to the Jacobs School, Arrizabalaga was a faculty adviser to a SACNAS chapter at Indiana University School of Medicine. He and Corral talked about how UB would benefit from its own chapter. So, Corral got to work.

She began organizing the new SACNAS club while receiving support and funding from the Jacobs School’s Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion and Office of Biomedical Education.

Arrizabalaga and D. Fernando Estrada, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, are faculty advisers to UB SACNAS.

“It has been a particularly exciting and rewarding experience to be part of the formation of SACNAS chapters at two different schools, first at Indiana University School of Medicine and now at UB,” Arrizabalaga says. “As the faculty adviser for both chapters, I found it rewarding to see the drive, passion, and leadership shown by the students as they established the chapters and earned recognition from both their school and the national SACNAS organization.”

The club earned UB’s designation as an official club after reaching 20 members and forming an executive board. Next, Corral applied to the SACNAS national body, and the club received one-year provisional designation as an official chapter this February.

Earning full designation from SACNAS requires continuing to grow the club, obtaining funding, and holding events, Corral says. 

Corral says that there are many social clubs and some professional development-focused groups within the Jacobs School and UB more broadly. Departments have graduate student associations, for example. But SACNAS transcends departments, she says, with members from varying scientific backgrounds and concentrations.

Historically, part of SACNAS’s mission has been to build community for students and individuals underrepresented in science. “Once you see someone who’s underrepresented in a field you want to be in, you can be more motivated to be there,” Corral says.

But anyone can join and participate regardless of race, national origin, or ethnicity.

According to the SACNAS website, its name is a testament to its founding during the Chicano and American Indian civil rights movements. Everyone is welcome to become a SACNAS member, regardless of gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, race, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, or religion, the site says.

“We want everyone to feel welcome, and we want everyone to support each other,” Corral says. “We all belong in science, so it doesn’t matter where you came from.”

At UB, Corral and the other SACNAS team members have conducted workshops on presenting research, held panels with postdocs, led outreach to boost STEM interest, hosted cultural events, and even put on a “Shark Tank”-style three-minute research pitch.

The club aims to be informal but informative, where students help and offer advice to other students. “We want to make it comfortable for people to come and learn and not be afraid or shy to ask those questions they want to ask,” Corral says.

Future UB SACNAS events will cover topics like helping undergraduates apply to graduate school, CV workshopping, finding postdoc opportunities, and exploring careers and opportunities in the scientific industry. 

For now, most of the club’s participants and activities are at the Jacobs School, largely including biomedical graduate students. But Corral hopes to gain members from across UB and include more undergraduate students while catering to people with all STEM interests.

She says she’s driven by the rewarding feeling that comes with helping others advance and find their place in science, just as many others have helped her. 

Follow UB SACNAS on Instagram.