This summer, Paa is a volunteer health care worker in Paraguay.

She is funding the trip with money she earned last summer working in a biological sciences laboratory at UB as a participant in UB's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program.

Paa worked on protein-DNA interactions in the laboratory of Gerald Koudelka, associate professor of biological sciences at UB.

"The program gave me a unique opportunity to experience research firsthand," she said. "Without research experience, you don't know what it's like to design an experiment, or how research is actually conducted. Most undergraduates who do not have this experience have no idea how scientists discovered the things they're learning."

This summer, Paa will be taking hands-on experience one step further: immunizing poor women and children in Paraguay against polio, measles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

"Hands-on" experience is the primary emphasis of UB's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Biology Initiative, which stresses that students learn science by "doing" science. An important goal of the program is to improve the retention rates of students, particularly women and underrepresented minorities, majoring in life sciences through the scholars program for biological-sciences students.

From their first semester, scholars participate in research colloquia, seminars and meetings. During their junior year, Hughes Scholars begin independent research projects under the supervision of a faculty research advisor.

"This program makes it possible for students to see professors every day and to get to know them on a personal basis," Paa said.

The HHMI Undergraduate Biology Initiative is administered through the Department of Biological Sciences and involves the active participation of more than 50 UB faculty as mentors and research advisors and more than 80 UB undergraduates.

Students receive $500 stipends each semester and a $3,000 stipend during the summer following their junior year, while doing research in university labs. During that summer, they may also live in campus dorms, with room expenses paid.

The scholarships are part of a $1.5 million grant UB received in 1994 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Gerald Koudelka, associate professor of biological sciences, directs the program with Ronald Berezny, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.

The program is limited to UB students, who may apply for a scholarship beginning in October of their freshman year.

More information about the program may be obtained from Catherine Pollina or Michael Hudecki at 645-2363.