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The SOT Undergraduate Diversity Program (UDP), planned by the SOT Committee on Diversity Initiatives (CDI), hosted 30 undergraduate students and five faculty advisors during the SOT 63rd Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in Salt Lake City, Utah. This three-day program aims to introduce the principles of toxicology, demonstrate how toxicology influences the world around us, and showcase the research careers available within the field. This was the 35th year of the UDP, and the enduring success of the program is a direct result of the hard work of many dedicated volunteers across the years. In this blog, I, on behalf of CDI), acknowledge and thank those who gave their time and energy this year.

On Saturday evening, CDI members led several activities to acquaint the participating students with the principles of toxicology and build community with each other with a ToxSquad icebreaker and scavenger hunt. Marquea King delivered a presentation that introduced toxicology concepts and areas of research to the students. Later, during the CDI Reunion, participants had the opportunity to meet UDP alumni, previous CDI members, and other attendees. The CDI Reunion is open to all SOT Annual Meeting attendees each year and is a special time of engaging with friends and colleagues who have been instrumental in expanding opportunities for undergraduates in toxicology and members who are interested in becoming involved in CDI activities.

On Sunday, the Undergraduate Diversity Program Travel Award recipients were joined by the recipients of the SOT Undergraduate Research Award, ToxMSDT participants, and other undergraduate students registered for the meeting. Dori Germolec, 2023–2024 SOT President, welcomed the undergraduates to a day of activities created to increase awareness of toxicology as a science and a career, encourage the pursuit of advanced degrees in biomedical sciences, and improve knowledge of basic principles and concepts in toxicology.

Presenters Matthew Campen, Troy Roepke, and Alexandra Noël shared research in several subdisciplines of toxicology and engaged the students with active learning. Vanessa Fitsanakis from Robson Forensic led a case study, titled “Forensic Analysis Using Toxicology: Beyond the Hocus-Pocus of CSI,” that put the students in the shoes of a forensic toxicologist.

Following a morning of toxicology presentations and the case study, the participants took part in a Graduate Program Breakout Session and a Career Roundtable Session, where they learned about the ins and outs of graduate school, as well as different careers in toxicology.

Graduate Program Breakout facilitators included Alison Elder, Chris Kassotis, Craig Marcus, Rebecca McCullough, and Robert Roth. Devin Alewel, Marisol Arellano, Hyland Gonzalez, Ramji Kandel, and David Umbaugh provided graduate student perspectives about applying to and being successful in graduate school. Career Roundtable facilitators included Chidozie Amuzie, Laura Armstrong, Antonio Baines, Jazmyne Barney, La’Nissa Brown-Baker, Angela Curry, Jaime D’Agostino, Andrea De Vizcaya-Ruiz, Deacqunita Harris, Kembra Howdeshell, Jorge Naciff, Karilyn Sant, Ranu Surolia, Alessandro Venosa, and Lauren Walker, who provided their perspectives on career opportunities in toxicology and contrasted employment in industry, academia, and government.

After an afternoon of these informational and inspiring career development activities, the participants attended an open session where they had the chance to meet with representatives from about 30 academic programs to learn about those programs and summer internship opportunities. CDI appreciates that academic programs participate in this session every year.

On Monday, students attended the Opening Plenary Session with their mentors before exploring Scientific and Poster Sessions and participating in the In Vitro Toxicology Lecture and Luncheon. In the afternoon, Lillie Barnett, Gina Hilton, Faria Khan, Ramon Lavado, Sumira Phatak, Courtney Roper, Alexandra Svetlik, Menna Teffera, Madeline Vera-Colon, Li Xia, Dorothy You, and Haylee Young accompanied groups of UDP students to visit posters. The program concluded with an inspirational presentation by Betina Lew titled “From Sao Paulo State University to Toxicologist in Medical Devices: A Career Built on Diversity, Mentorship, Trust, and Friendship” that explored her personal career journey in toxicology. At the end of the program, it was clear that the students were feeling inspired about becoming future scientists, had bonded with each other and the volunteers, and had their horizons widened in the wonderful world of toxicology!

This undergraduate program is successful due to the efforts of many dedicated SOT members who volunteer their valuable time during the Annual Meeting. Among the most important volunteers are those who serve as mentors. Mentors are in contact with the students ahead of the meeting and throughout the three days and then continue to communicate with the students as they make academic and career decisions. Each group of five students had a host mentor and peer mentor. UDP host mentors this year included Jazmyne Barney, Xiaojia He, Nicole Soucy, Ranu Surolia, Shreesh Raj Sammi, and Hollie Swanson. UDP peer mentors included Eric Brown Jr., Frederick Adams Ekuban, Lucie Ford, Courtney McClure, Kelly Rivenbark, and Alexandra Svetlik. We also had additional peer and host mentors for the students who joined on Sunday. These mentors included Arturo J. Barahona, Gina Capece, Juliana Choza, Samuel Cochran, Christine Curran, Angela Curry, Linval Depass, Kymberly Gowdy, Joshua Gray, Kembra Howdeshell, Kristin Kerstens, Michelle Kossack, Alex Lovins, Hannah Lovins, Jim Luyendyk, Charlotte McVeigh, Richard Nass, Esther Omaiye, Jess Ray, Rachel Renda, Mindy Reynolds, Souvarish Sarkar, Pooja Singh, Cody Smith, Lindsey St. Mary, Sarah Tucker, Tao Wang, and Katie Zychowski.

There are many people involved in providing a robust meeting experience for these students! I especially want to thank the members of the CDI for their leadership: Co-Chair Tynisha Glover; members David Blake, Deacqunita Harris, Jessica Hartman, Jennifer Larson-Casey, Amie Lund, Courtni Newsome, Lauren Poole, and Checo Rorie; postdoctoral representative Rubia Martin; graduate student representative Talia Seymore; FUTURE Committee liaison Bob Roth; NIH grant PI José Manautou and co-PI Karilyn Sant; and Council contacts Jennifer Rayner and Robyn Tanguay.

There are lots of fun photos from the undergraduate activities in the SOT Annual Meeting photo gallery.

The feedback that we receive from students is that the UDP is a transformative experience personally and for their academic and professional trajectory. We see some of these students return as Student members and later in SOT leadership roles. We are very fortunate to have leading toxicologists dedicate their time to share their knowledge and professional development experiences with the students. Thank you! We look forward to many of you returning to volunteer with the 2025 program in Orlando.

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