Washington Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experiences (WA CURE)

The Washington Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experiences (WA CURE) is a statewide consortium operating across the 34 community and technical colleges in Washington State (WA) under the leadership of the WA State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and Green River College (GRC), Yakima Valley College (YVC), and Edmonds College (EC).

We offer annual professional development opportunities for individual faculty and college teams to develop course based undergraduate research experiences and increase access to them across the college as a core student success strategy.

Our Approach

Our design strategy integrates undergraduate research within a regular course format called Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). CUREs are considered high-impact practices for student success and provide community and technical colleges (CTCs) with the ability to overcome many of the institutional and structural barriers to implementing undergraduate research at primarily undergraduate and under-resourced colleges.

WA CURE is also a research project exploring how Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences affect faculty teaching practices, improve overall student outcomes, and create institutional change within community colleges. These research questions center on individual faculty development in broader systemic transformation, examining the connections between classroom innovation, student achievement, and institutional success.

Contacts

Irene Shaver
Program Administrator
Ishaver@sbctc.edu
360-704-1009

WA Cure Leadership Team

  1. Valerie Sundby, Co-Principal Investigator, Tacoma Community College
  2. Matthew Loser, Co-Principal Investigator, Yakima Valley College
  3. Robin Datta, Co-Principal Investigator, Edmonds College
  4. Shannon Newman, Co-Principal Investigator, Green River College

The National Science Foundation funds this work (NSF IUSE 2336652) and it is a 5-year project (2024-2029) to expand undergraduate research opportunities across Washington's 34 Community and Technical Colleges