Becoming a GEM Consortium Employer Partner

The National Graduate Education for Minorities (GEM) Consortium aims to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented students into graduate-level science and engineering programs. Beginning in 2022, UL Research Institutes (ULRI) became an employer partner, joining 70 employer partners and over 120 university partners, providing two summer internships. Establishing this relationship improves our ability to attract talent from new universities and connect to the network of other employer and university partners. It also presents an opportunity for growth by attracting a greater diversity of students into the safety sciences.

Marking the beginning of the ULRI’s partnership with GEM, both the Fire Safety Research Institute and Electrochemical Safety Research Institute hosted two GEM fellows as interns: Paola Rioja, a University of Michigan Ph.D. student and Nick Maciel, a master’s degree student at Northeastern University. During the 2022 GEM Annual Board Meeting and Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, both Rioja and Maciel presented posters from their work with ULRI.