Welcome to STARTastro!
Summer Transfer Academy and Research Training in Astronomy & Astrophysics
CSU applicants deadline: 4/15
UC applicants deadline: 5/15
STARTastro is a regional partnership between UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and Southern California's minority-serving community colleges that aims to support transfer student success for Astronomy and physical science majors through a Transfer Receptive Culture Model. STARTastro provides academic and research preparation so that transfer students are ready to excel as upper division majors.
News and Updates
Stay informed & involved by joining our google group at https://groups.google.com/g/startastro
(January 2025) STARTastro scholars Annika Feng, Marylin Fierro, and Marylin Loritsch presented at the 2025 Conferences for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics (CU*IP). Annika attened the CSU San Luis Obispo site; Marylin & Madison attended the UC San Diego site. All three scholars presented their research in poster presentations, and Marylin was awarded a conference poster prize. Congratulations everyone!
(January 2025) STARTastro scholar Marylin Loritsch has received the prestigious American Astronomical Society Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards! The Chambliss Awards recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students who present a poster session at the AAS national meeting. Awardees are honored with a Chambliss medal. Marylin received her award for her presentation "Characterizing the Optical Spectra of the Nearest Stellar Neighbors: The 20 Parsec Sample". Congratulations! (see the press announcement from the AAS)
(December 2024) STARTastro scholars Annika Feng and Marylin Loritsch have been awarded the AAS FAMOUS Travel Grant for the upcoming AAS 245 meeting in Washington, DC. FAMOUS (Funds for Astronomical Meetings: Outreach to Underrepresented Scientists) grants award $1,000 for a single AAS meeting to present research, with priority given to members of historically underrepresented groups. Congratulations Annika & Marylin!
STARTastro shines at AAS 245
(January 2025) STARTastro scholars were out in force at the 245th American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC, presenting their research at the largest astronomy conference in the US. The poster presentations included:
Leo Intriligator: "Determining Upper Limits on the OH Molecule in the Outer Disk of M33" (202.03)
Justin Mascari: "Tracing out "CO-dark" molecular hydrogen in M33" (202.04)
Sophia Um: "Identifying Isolated Quenched Dwarf Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations" (311.04)
Marylin Loritsch: "Characterizing the Optical Spectra of the Nearest Stellar Neighbors: The 20 Parsec Sample" (464.17)
Madison Fierro: "Characterizing the Optical Spectra of the Nearest Stellar Neighbors: The Gaia UCD Sample" (464.18)
Annika Feng: "Orbital Monitoring and Atmospheric Spectroscopy of the Directly Imaged Companion 1RXS J2351+3127 b" (476.05)
In addition, Adam Burgasser presented on early outcomes from the first summer of the program in a poster "STARTastro: A Transfer Receptive Culture Model for Community College Transfers into University of California Astronomy & Astrophysics Programs" (108.06).
Congratulations to all of the presenters on a successful conference!
(November 2024) STARTastro scholars Madison Fierro & Marylin Loritsch joined graduate student mentor Emma Softich, and faculty mentor Adam Burgasser at Lick Observatory to conduct observations with the Kast spectrograph. Although the run was sadly weathered out, the team was treated to an in-depth look at the 65-year old Shane 3m telescope and the innards of the Kast spectrograph by telescope operator Paul Canton, and played with the PANOSETI optics. Even a cloudy night can be educational!
(August 2024) STARTastro scholars presented the fruits of their summer research at the 2024 UCSD Summer Undergraduate Research Conference. Scholars presented work spanning cool stars near the Sun to the detection of the most explosive events in the universe in gamma rays. The summer conference capped an exciting summer of research. Some of the presentations can be found at this video, this video, or this video. Congratulations to our first STARTastro cohort on their successful research presentations!
(July 2024) The first cohort of STARTastro scholars have begun their summer program at UCSD!. The scholars hail from 6 comunity colleges in San Diego, Orange, and LA counties, and will embark on an 8-week program of academic and professional development and research. Good luck scholars!
What is STARTastro? 2024 Information Session
Learn about the goals and design of the STARTastro program from our first information session held in May 2024. This session aimed to provide information of community college students on how to prepare for transfer into an Astronomy & Astrophysics major at a UC or CSU, and of course encouraged participation in the STARTastro program!. The session was hosted by STARTastro organizers Adam Burgasser, Kate Rubin, and Karin Sandstrom, and featured a panel of former Community College students now pursuing advanced degrees and careers in A&A. You can see the presentation using the YouTube link to the left or view the slides for more information.
What is a Transfer Receptive Culture Model?
The Transfer Receptive Culture model focuses on addressing the barriers faced by the diverse transfer students in the public California Community College system, and the role UC and CSU institutions plays in ensuring these students successfully advance from transfer enrollment to completion of a Bachelor's degree. We use the principles of the Transfer Receptive Culture model to design our Transfer Academy program.
Read more
The Transfer Receptive Culture model identifies five core elements for ensuring transfer student success:
Establishing transfer success as an institutional priority of excellence;
Providing information and resources that collaboratively support Community College programs;
Providing financial and academic support for transfers, with the latter approached from a perspective of excellence rather than deficiency;
Valuing transfer students' lived experiences, including connection to community and family; and
Conducting reflective assessment on metrics of transfer success that account for diverse experiences and goals.
Studies have shown that the Transfer Receptive Culture model addresses students’ fears and misconceptions about transferring, and increases their sense of financial and academic support and validation in their transfer-to institution.
Key references
Herrera, A., & Jain, D. (2013). Building a transfer-receptive culture at four-year institutions. New Directions for Higher Education, 162, 51–59. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/he.20056
Jain, D., Herrera, A. Bernal, S., & Solorzano, D. (2011). Critical Race Theory and the Transfer Function: Introducing a Transfer Receptive Culture. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 35(3), 252-266. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10668926.2011.526525
Jain, D., et al. (2016) Toward a Critical Race Perspective of Transfer: An Exploration of a Transfer Receptive Culture, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 40(12), 1013-1024. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10668926.2016.1213674
Meet our Community College Partners
Funding Support
Our program is generously funded by the Heising Simons Foundation and the National Science Foundation, and supported by staff, faculty, and students in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at UCSD and the Department of Astronomy at SDSU.