Abby Delapenha holds a Falcon tube in her gloved hand. Her lab partner, Meghan McLees, gingerly taps in a chemical compound to create a buffer solution as Assistant Professor of Biology Josephine Antwi looks on.

Fresh out of high school, these incoming undergraduates haven’t even started classes, but they’re already conducting cutting edge scientific research, thanks to Jepson Scholars.

Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the UMW program gives future science majors for whom finances may be a challenge a four-year scholarship and the priceless experience of doing research alongside faculty mentors – and seasoned upperclassmen – the summer before their freshman year. Read more.

The University of Mary Washington is a premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences university in Virginia, highly respected for its commitment to academic excellence, strong undergraduate liberal arts and sciences program, and dedication to life-long learning. The university, with a total enrollment of more than 5,000, features colleges of business, education and arts and sciences, and three campuses, including a residential campus in Fredericksburg, Va., a second one in nearby Stafford and a third in Dahlgren, Va., which serves as a center of development of educational and research partnerships between the Navy, higher education institutions and the region’s employers