Career Readiness Driven by Sequential CUREs

The University of Maryland First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE) was launched in 2014 and initially developed to provide a broad range of undergraduate students with research experience. As the program has grown and matured during six years of operation, the student outcomes targeted have evolved to include a broader range of professional development impacts, including critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professionalism. Students participate in FIRE through the completion of a sequential three-semester course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). The sequential nature enables students to cumulatively build personal and professional outcomes through a three-semester process of research preparation (FIRE Semester 1), training (FIRE Semester 2), and accomplishment (FIRE Semester 3). Optional mid-program (FIRE Summer Fellowships) and post-completion (FIRE Next Steps) opportunities allow students to develop leadership capacities in addition to their research training.