Early in her time at Northern Marianas College, Ellala Limoico was studying math to eventually become a pilot. A chemistry class and a seven-week assignment at a local pharmacy changed her life.
“I fell in love with chemistry,” she said. “And then I worked at a local pharmacy in Saipan, and I realized I could combine my love of chemistry and research with my love of helping people as a pharmacist.”
However, there are almost no pharmacy programs in the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, and limited opportunities for degrees in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math. When Limoico received a brochure on Northern Marianas College’s Promotion Retention Opportunities Advancement pathways program, or PROA, she saw an opportunity to pursue her goal of becoming a pharmacist.
PROA is a cooperative arrangement between the Northern Marianas College and Portland State University under the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American Native American Pacific Islanders Serving Institutions grant. The PROA Pathways Partnership program represents a continuation and expansion of the relationship established between NMC and PSU through the NIH-funded BUILD EXITO research training program for undergraduates underrepresented in biomedical fields.
The program supports Asian American and Pacific Islander students as they graduate from NMC and transfer to PSU by providing services that will help them identify career paths in STEM, receive mentorship and guidance while gaining research experience that aligns with their educational and career goals.
Two of 17 students in this year’s cohort are doing their research at Oregon Health & Science University during their junior year at PSU.
Gaining lab experience
Limoico connected with Amala Soumyanath, B.Pharm., Ph.D., professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine. Soumyanath is director of the NIH-funded BENFRA Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center at OHSU, and co-director of the NIH T32 Training Grant on CAM Research Training in Neuroscience and Stress. She has a pharmacy degree and her area of expertise is pharmacognosy, or the scientific study of medicinal plants.
“When I took all my chemistry classes back home, I didn’t get to work with any apparatuses because they were all destroyed years ago in a typhoon,” Limoico said. “Working with Dr. Soumyanath was a good fit because she has a pharmacy background, but also gives me experience working with lab equipment and data.”
During this past summer, Limoico worked more than 200 hours in Soumyanath’s lab. In addition to an assigned lab project, she helped by doing quality assurance on data for a review paper being prepared for submission. During the school year, she juggles a full load of classes at PSU and spends 10 hours per week in the lab at OHSU. Limoico continues to work with Soumyanath’s team on a study looking at the botanical dietary supplement Ashwagandha, comparing different methods to determine the best way to analyze elements of the supplement in human blood.
“She brings enthusiasm and ability,” Soumyanath said. “I am really impressed by how quickly she grasps the concepts, read papers, tables and just got right in and got to work in the lab.”
Limoico said one of the best aspects of the PROA program is that she came to Portland with other students from the Northern Mariana Islands who are also student-researchers. The community aspect has made the transition much easier.
“We transferred to Portland together, and I live with three others in an apartment,” she said. “We’re all interested in research and sciences too. It has made being far from home easier.”
Discovering a passion
Limoico’s fellow student, Arianna Kapileo, is in the same PROA cohort. Like Limoico, Kapileo transferred to PSU from Northern Mariana College.
Kapileo wants to be a dietician and is in the public health preclinical program. She is working in the lab of Maggie Jerome, Ph.D., R.D., CNSC, LD, an assistant professor in the Graduate Programs in Human Nutrition at OHSU. Jerome’s research focuses on premature infants and their nutrition needs.
“Initially, I just wanted to do any sort of research related to nutrition to gain experience and figured I could see what is out there,” Kapileo said. “And now after working with Dr. Jerome, I know I want to work in pediatric nutrition.”
Jerome said she is thrilled to work with a student who is enthusiastic to learn about her field.
“I’m a newer faculty member and when you’re first starting out, it’s a lot to manage getting your lab and research projects set up,” she said. “And Arianna wanted exposure to this area of nutrition, so I thought it would be a win-win.”
Jerome said most dietetics and nutrition programs don’t cover infant and pediatric nutrition as much as adult and specialty care areas, such as nutrition for people with diabetes.
“My passion and area of expertise is with infants and specifically premature infants — and I'm always trying to get more people into it,” Jerome said, laughing.
Kapileo said her original goal was to work in a hospital and help with diet management for patients with diabetes and other conditions. “But now I see another path,” she said. “I feel like this work has steered me toward pediatric nutrition because there is such a great need. And this is something I can bring back with me.”
Part of the structure of the PROA program is that the students from Northern Mariana Islands bring back their newfound education and research expertise to their community, which increases the community's number of trained health care professionals and researchers.
“One of the best parts of this program is this whole group of us came from Saipan together,” Kapileo said. “We brought our community here and have support from our college back home, and our PROA advisors. There is a lot of support and resources.
“I’m excited to finish school and go back home and bring what I have learned to benefit the community.”