Latest $1 million donation helps eliminate barriers to success
Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu
SAN ANTONIO, July 18, 2024 – Adriana Avendano was just a high school junior when a doctor asked her if he should recommend a hysterectomy for his patient with severe endometriosis.
She was participating as a Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy scholar at UT Health San Antonio, one of 20 area high-schoolers in her cohort one summer engaged in hands-on research activities at the university, under the guidance of established research faculty.
Assigned to a biomedical engineering lab, Avendano’s task was to gather all available research papers on endometriosis and make a recommendation after examining actual tissue samples from the patient from high-resolution imaging. Though the final decision didn’t rest with her, it was heady stuff for a 17-year-old, she recalls.
“I was pretty confident in my words, but obviously, you don’t want to be wrong about those kinds of things,” said Avendano, who now is a coordinator for the program. “I really had to do all of my research to be able to come back and say, ‘Yes, I think you should recommend hysterectomy to your patient.’ ”
The academy recently began its 15th cohort, with another nearly $1 million from the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund that is supporting the latest class of 20 current high school sophomores for the next three years. The Voelckers were successful dairy operators locally and deeply interested in medical research, San Antonio and children, though childless themselves.
It all started in 2009, created as a pipeline for careers in biomedical sciences, enabling highly competitive high school students to be introduced to biomedical research by accomplished scientists as mentors at UT Health San Antonio. The year before, Voelcker fund trustees had been talking to then-president Francisco Cigarroa, MD, and others at the school about supporting home-grown scientists in San Antonio.

“So while those conversations were going on, we talked about what our dream outreach program would look like,” said Irene Chapa, PhD, executive director of recruitment and science outreach at UT Health San Antonio, and now director of the academy. “If we had a million dollars, what would it be?
“It was a perfect combination of an administration that really wanted the program and wanted their faculty to participate, and the money and vision that already had been defined in our imaginary world,” she said. “It really was a million-dollar dream come true.”
Local high schools spread the word about the program, and freshmen were invited to apply for the following year. And not just with a paper application either, but more professionally, in a process very similar to what the graduate school uses and including an in-person interview. From that process, 20 students were selected, and started in the summer before their sophomore year and continued over their next three years, funded by the first $1 million contribution.
New cohorts have started each year since, except for the 2020 COVID-19 year, with Voelcker funding of roughly $1 million renewing every three years. In some years, more than 20 students were picked, with a total to date of 309 scholars selected since the start. Success metrics are impressive, with close to 80% of the students remaining in STEM career fields, many of whom are now practicing clinicians and scientists in the San Antonio area.
Eliminating barriers to success
The program is longitudinal, meaning it is continual, and year round, but includes a seven-week summer research “intensive” on the UT Health San Antonio campus spent in mentor labs and community-building exercises, as well as leadership and professional development sessions.
Students are taught basic lab skills, simulations in teaching labs, medical terminology and how to read research articles, all in an effort to prepare them to enter a faculty lab and make meaningful contributions to science through their research. They develop a project of their own with the guidance of a principal investigator or a designated junior mentor, who might be a post-doctorate or graduate student.
The mentors span the gamut of research done across the university, from those doing translational work in clinical environments or work on PTSD to those doing research in the nursing and dental schools.
Scholars are provided a stipend and other resources, such as “success packs” that include notebooks, pens and flash drives, backpacks, journals and polo shirts. The academy started a “dress for success closet” after learning that several scholars had struggled buying clothes to wear for program activities. Students can take what they need and give back what they don’t, so they can dress like a professional.
The Voelcker Academy works to eliminate any barriers to participation, including also transportation, providing bus passes and gas reimbursement to those who have difficulty getting to campus every day, Chapa said.
The scholars also receive sessions on professional development, ranging from how to prepare resumes and conduct interviews to public speaking and poster preparation.
“I think one of the biggest things we provide is confidence, because a lot of students are very quiet, very timid on day one,” said Kristen La Porte, the Voelcker program lead coordinator. “And then they come out of their shell because they are comfortable in the Voelcker family.”
Chapa said many Voelcker scholars have gone on to professional careers as physicians, PhDs and health care professionals, with several being current students at UT Health San Antonio in professional programs.
Allie Vaiana, PhD, a member of the inaugural cohort from 2009, earned her doctorate in neuroscience at UT Health San Antonio and now is an associate director of research programs with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. “I thought to have a career in medicine, you had to be a clinician, but I quickly learned how much fun it is to be a scientist, such as designing experiments, asking questions and ultimately being on the edge of discovery,” she said.
Brianna Bal, MD, a member of the 2010 Voelcker cohort, spent three summers in the academy working at the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at UT Health San Antonio researching the drug rapamycin and its effects on aging. She’s now a psychosomatic medicine psychiatrist at University Health.
Said Sergio Arambula, a 2012 Voelcker cohort member who credits the program for his acceptance into Brown University and a career as a senior automation engineer at Pfizer: “I was a poor kid from a rough side of San Antonio. I never thought I could get into an Ivy League school. I never thought I could graduate with honors. I never thought I could get a job where I love every single moment of work. Voelcker showed me that those possibilities existed.”
Ask a 17-year-old

For her part, Avendano, who said she’s always been a “science kid,” first learned about the Voelcker program as a freshman at Young Women’s Leadership Academy in San Antonio.
“When my teacher brought me the packet and said, ‘I think this might be something you’d be interested in,’ I saw science research, I saw lab coats,” she said. “And I was nerdy enough to think, ‘That’s so cool. I’m going to get my own lab coat.’ ”
A member of the 2013 cohort and working in the biomedical engineering lab, she found herself using images created by optical coherence tomography to help find out how to better diagnose arteriosclerosis and other coronary diseases. The lab used that same technology in collaboration with obstetrics and gynecology to evaluate endometriosis.
She was in charge of gathering available research articles when the OB-GYN doctor approached her with his question.
“And so he was coming back and asking a 17-year-old what I thought, because I was lead on this project in the lab,” Avendano said. “I think it places a lot of responsibility, but also helps you really build your confidence. It taught me the science identity, the self-confidence.”
The doctor never got back to her to let her know what he ended up doing, but to her knowledge, she says, the patient did have a hysterectomy because the endometriosis had migrated to other parts of her body.
Avendano went on to serve as a peer mentor for the program while in college, and discovered she enjoyed the academy’s outreach to the high school students as much as research itself, leading to her vital role now. “I tell the kids that they’re like my little brothers and sisters,” she said.
Over the years, entry into the program became so competitive, with hundreds of applications for just 20 spots, that the academy had to move to a system in which local high schools now nominate up to three candidates from their campuses for the application process.
Academic requirements for application include a grade of 90 in math, science and English (or 85 in AP or honors courses), two letters of recommendation with one from a science teacher and a well-written essay. Applicants must also be willing to commit to the three-year program should they be accepted.
The summer intensive closes with a science symposium and graduation program, which this year is being held on Thursday, July 25, 5 p.m. at Holly Auditorium on the Long Campus of UT Health San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive. First-year scholars will present scientific posters detailing the research focus of their new labs and their projected projects, while third-year scholars will celebrate completing the program. Voelcker fund trustees will be in attendance.
For more information on the Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy at UT Health San Antonio, go to https://voelckeracademy.uthscsa.edu/.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is one of the country’s leading health science universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions, graduate biomedical sciences and public health have graduated more than 42,550 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” UTHealthSA.org.
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