The Summer Opportunities in Agricultural and the Environment (SOARE) is a partnership between the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), The Big Ten Alliance Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), and The UMD Graduate School. SOARE is a gateway to graduate education. The program aims to increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing graduate study and research careers in agricultural, environmental, nutrition and food science, and natural resource areas of study. SOARE provides underrepresented undergraduate students with on-campus research experience to establish important relationships with faculty in their respective fields of study and to conduct graduate-level research under the supervision of a renowned AGNR faculty member.  Our new summer research program, SOARE: Strategic Work in Applied Geosciences (SWAG), is geared towards undergraduates with interest in geology (i.e., mineralogy, geomorphology, petrology), earth science (i.e., geology plus chemistry, physics computations, environmental science, geography, hydrology/marine science, atmospheric science), natural resources management and soil science.

Students participating in the SOARE and SOARE: SWAG will spend ten weeks at UMD working closely with AGNR faculty members as part of their research teams. Students are expected to spend about forty hours per week working with their research teams and to be contributing members. Participants will attend weekly seminars to learn more about the graduate school experience, the graduate school application process as well as social activities during their stay.  At the end of the ten weeks, students will have produced tangible results from experimental research and will report the results in a special research forum. Participants will also become acquainted with the culture of graduate school and learn what is needed and expected of them as graduate students in their respective disciplines.

• Be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States
• Be enrolled full-time at an accredited four-year higher education institution and obtain junior or senior status by the Fall 2024 academic year
• Possess an excellent academic record including a 3.0 or better cumulative GPA
• Be interested in pursuing graduate study in one of the offered SROP programs at UMD
• Completion of the SRI or SOARE supplemental application which will require applicants to submit a current résumé or curriculum vitae
• Please note:  Priority is given to summer applicants who intend to pursue a research doctorate