The Northern California Cancer Center's (NCCC) Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR) is designed to encourage minority master's level students in health sciences to go on for a doctoral degree and to pursue a career in cancer control research. Now in its third of three NCI-funded grant years, the program is a partnership between NCCC and collaborators at California State University, Hayward, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, University of California at Berkeley, and University of California at San Francisco where students are recruited to participate. The program consists of three components: an annual five-day summer institute to showcase the needs, opportunities, and resources in the field, internships in cancer control research, and privately funded doctoral incentive awards to offset the cost of doctoral program applications. Evaluation is conducted at three levels: process (immediate feedback on intermediate objectives), impact (change in likelihood of applying to a doctoral program), and outcome (actual application/acceptance and/or employment in cancer control research). To date, the program has been highly successful in recruitment (meeting the goal of 50 participants over 2 years) and in the number of participants who have been accepted to doctoral programs (8) and who are planning to apply in the coming year (8). In both years, statistically significant increases in participant likelihood of applying for a doctoral program have been observed following completion of the summer institute. This competing continuation seeks 5 years of support with the following specific aims: 1. To continue the MTPCCR in Northern California; 2. To demonstrate the portability of the program by expanding to Southern California at the University of California, Los Angeles where the program components will be implemented in partnership with the University of Southern California, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, California State University at Long Beach, California State University at Los Angeles, and California State University, Northridge; and 3. To strengthen the current evaluation through identification and measurement of the knowledge, attitude and sociodemographic factors that influence likelihood of going on for doctoral training.
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