The University of California at Riverside (UCR) is one of the most diverse campuses in the nation and is located in the Inland Empire of Southern California, one of the most rapidly growing and diverse regions of the United States. Most of the undergraduate students at UCR come from this region. Thus, there is a broad base of students from which to select and promote interest in a research career in the biomedically-related sciences. The overall goal of the MARC U-STAR Program at UCR is to increase the number of eligible undergraduate minority students pursuing PhD degrees and research careers in the biomedically-related sciences. This training grant provides a Pre-MARC Development Program to increase the eligible pool of students for the Trainee Research Program. The Measurable Objectives and Goals of our Program are the following. 1) Increase the number of UCR minority students majoring in the sciences who are qualified to become MARC U-STAR Trainees through outreach to high schools via our high school outreach and Native American outreach programs. 2) Increase the number of highly qualified students who apply to the MARC Program by using freshman courses and advising/discovery seminars, by synergizing with other Honors and Minority programs on campus (e.g., CAMP and others), and by engaging students in Pre-MARC undergraduate research before and during their sophomore year and stimulating their interest in a biomedical research career. 3) The core of the program is preparing the MARC U-STAR Trainees for graduate studies in highly competitive research institutions. We will achieve this goal by immersing MARC U-STAR Trainees in intensive cutting-edge research in laboratories of Faculty Mentors on campus during the academic year and in one other off-campus laboratory at a high-caliber research institution during one summer; we will also provide specific classes that will prepare the Trainees to think critically, to make scientific oral presentations, and to write scientific papers and research proposals. This will provide a solid basis for them to enter and be successful in the most competitive graduate programs in the nation. For the next 5-year period (2015-2020) we propose to train about 35-40 MARC students and to reach near 100% of graduated UCR Trainees entering high quality PhD or MD/PhD programs in the biomedical sciences.
This MARC U-STAR training grant will not only directly contribute to increase the number of highly qualified minority undergraduates who enter PhD Programs and continue on to scientific research careers and leadership academic positions, but should also have ripple effects that extend beyond this primary goal. The MARC U-STAR Scholars as research leaders will serve as role models in society and in the scientific community to inspire new generations and help break down racial concepts and other discriminatory barriers. The goal of the Program is to provide significant research training to undergraduate minority students in the sciences in order to help them successfully compete and enter a high-quality PhD Program in the biomedical-related sciences. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of underrepresented biomedical and behavioral scientists in leadership career positions that advance the health-related research needs of the nation. Our target outcome is to achieve 100% of our Trainees entering high-caliber PhD programs within 3 years of graduation.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 33 publications
