The 2024 SPPH Faculty–Student Research & Scholarship Mixer brought together students and faculty in the Levin Hall Dining Room for an evening focused on connection, mentorship, and collaboration. Held in a relaxed, open-house format, the mixer gave students a chance to talk directly with faculty about ongoing projects, potential thesis and capstone ideas, and opportunities to get involved in research and community-engaged scholarship across the School of Public and Population Health.
Conversation tables were loosely organized by theme and department, which made it easy for students to move between interests such as epidemiology, biostatistics and data science, population health and health disparities, and bioethics and health humanities. Faculty shared snapshots of current projects, upcoming grant work, and applied practice sites, while students asked questions about how to get started, what skills are most helpful, and how to balance research with classes and other commitments.
The mixer also highlighted the breadth of the school’s partnerships, with several faculty describing collaborations with community organizations, health systems, and other UTMB schools. Many students used the evening to follow up on interests sparked in the classroom and to identify mentors for future scholarly work, including applied practice experiences and integrative learning projects.
By the end of the event, students had concrete next steps for reaching out, scheduling follow-up conversations, and exploring specific projects, and faculty reported making connections with students they might never meet in a traditional classroom setting. The 2024 mixer reinforced SPPH’s commitment to a culture of collaboration where research, teaching, and community engagement are closely linked and where students see themselves as emerging contributors to UTMB’s scholarly mission.