In line with this, Bonsomi conducted a 2-month survey and concluded that the root reason behind the lack of African women in science was simply because a huge proportion (about 90%) of them never had the opportunity to engage with research during their college years. In response, we developed the African Research Academy for Women (ARA-W), a premier research program that enables at least 5 exceptional African university undergraduate women in the sciences to spend 2 months of their long summer term at the Nigerian or Ghanaian Institute for Medical Research where they are be introduced to the world of research while receiving mentorship on a cutting-edge scientific project from scientists.