Recently, New Mexico was recognized as the first 'minority-as-majority' state in the contiguous 48 states, with the highest proportion of Hispanics among the states, and the highest proportion of Native Americans in the continental U.S. The University of New Mexico (UNM) today is rapidly reflecting these demographics, but more is needed to encourage some of our very talented underrepresented minority students to enter doctoral degree programs to prepare for biomedical research careers. This proposal for funding for a UNM Post-Baccalaureate Research and Education Program (PREP) is precisely what is needed. The UNM PREP program is designed with various program elements to encourage and prepare up to 60 post-baccalaureate participants in its first five years to gain acceptance into and to complete doctoral degrees in biomedical research fields. UNM PREP scholars will have a full schedule of activities that all of them participate in: conduct full-time research, be assigned to a peer mentor, attend a year long set of tours of research laboratories, participate in the graduate admission colloquium series. All PREP scholars will attend speakers' events with IMSD and MARC participants, and networking with several programs at UNM during formal activities and informal community-building events. PREP scholars will present posters at the UNM Research Fair and Research Symposium and attend professional conferences. Seminars will help prepare our PREP scholars for pursuing a research career, covering experimental research design approaches, technical writing, research ethics, and public communication. Our PREP scholars will also have the experience of teaching undergraduates about their research topic and methods. Each PREP scholar will be assessed individually to ensure later succeed in graduate studies, and a faculty advisor will work with the student to develop the study plan, and then each scholar will take up to 15 credit hours of coursework to fulfill this plan. Administrative management of the UNM PREP program will be a coordinated effort by a Program Director, a Program Coordinator, and an Executive Board and committees (Recruitment, Education & Research, Events), each responsible for a specific set of activities. Coordination with other funded programs at UNM is planned with the Program Director and Program Coordinator attending and working with the Program Officers and staff of the IMSD and MARC programs as partners in the UNM Unified Plan. Evaluations will be conducted for all activities and mentoring relations on a set schedule, and the data that is collected will be used by both the internal evaluation team and the External Steering Committee, who will assess progress in achieving goals and measurable objectives, and make recommendations for changes in the program plans. Dissemination efforts will include posting pdf documents of PREP scholar poster presentations, having PREP scholars co-author research articles with their faculty mentors, and with the Program Director and faculty mentors writing about the lessons learned in implementing PREP and presenting their results at professional conferences. ? ?
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