Welcome to EMBARC!

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and housed at the CSUN Health Equity Research and Education (HERE) Center, EMBARC (Educational Modules to Broaden Academic Research Cultures) is a peer-led program for pre-transfer community college students in the STEMM fields. The program prepares students for academic and research opportunities through professional skill development, transfer resources, and community building. Through a series of workshops and mentorship rooted in Cultural Mismatch Theory (CMT) and Community Cultural Wealth (CCM) frameworks that embrace students’ family upbringing and cultural strengths, EMBARC aims to support community college students as they navigate STEMM majors and their transition to four-year institutions.

Why EMBARC?

EMBARC stands for Educational Modules to Broaden Academic Research Cultures. “Embark” also means, “to begin a journey.” Through the lens of CMT and CCM, we focus on cultural strengths students bring from their families and communities to science. At EMBARC, we believe “beginning one’s journey” in science through such frameworks will foster harmonization between home and academic cultures and enable students to draw meaning to their science courses and activities; in turn, we believe this will “broaden” the number of historically underserved students in science.