New Undergraduate Students Welcomed to Jacobs School

By Dirk Hoffman

More than 320 students attended the event at the Jacobs School building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo, according to Kelli Hickey, director of enrollment management and biomedical undergraduate education.

It marked the second year that undergraduate student orientation was conducted downtown as an introduction to the Jacobs School community.

“Bringing our new undergraduates to the downtown campus starts to create a connection and a feeling of belonging to the Jacobs School,” Hickey says. “It gets them excited to see all the opportunities that they will have in coming semesters as a Jacobs School student.”

The new students were able to attend tabling talks, various presentations, take tours and interact with current students.

Tables set up in the Jacobs School building atrium covered such topics as “Meet Your Major,” “Student Clubs,” “Academic Advising,” “Career Design Center,” and “Tips From Current Students.”

The Jacobs School undergraduate program offers the following majors:

• biochemistry
• bioinformatics and computational biology – biomedical informatics
• biomedical sciences
• biotechnology
• medical laboratory science
• neuroscience
• nuclear medicine technology
• pharmacology and toxicology

It also offers combined programs in neuroscience BS/MS, pharmacology BS/MS and biomedical sciences BS/PharmD and has minors in neuroscience, and pharmacology and toxicology.

The students learned about the tutoring services available at the Academic Success Center, located in Cary Hall on UB’s South Campus.

Students had the choice of attending sessions on “Hands-On Science,” “Ask Me Anything” (an opportunity to ask current students questions), “Goal Setting & Tips From Success Coaches,” and “What is Research.”

Tours were given of the gross anatomy lab, and the biochemistry, pharmacology and neuroscience research labs.

Students were welcomed to the event by opening remarks from Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School; John C. Panepinto, PhD, associate dean for biomedical education; Jennifer A. Surtees, PhD, associate dean for undergraduate education and STEM outreach; and Hickey, who introduced the academic advisers and success coaches.