The purpose of our proposed program, Undergraduate Research Program to Promote Diversity at Columbia University Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Department in the Mailman School of Public Health, is to increase the pool of students from underrepresented populations who are interested in pursuing graduate degrees in environmental health sciences. While programs, such as IMSD, exist to support diversity students at the doctoral level, the challenge has been to identify qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds among those that apply to environmental health sciences graduate programs. To accomplish this we need to capture the interest of a wider group of students while they are still undergraduates and to further nurture those students who have shown an interest in EHS. We propose to accomplish this by involving undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds in a two year mentored research program. The program will include not only hands-on research with EHS faculty, but also seminars from faulty in EHS as well as doctoral candidates. We will provide students with training in professionalism, mentoring throughout their two years in the program and guidance with the graduate school application process. Undergraduates will be identified in collaboration with faculty at John Jay College, part of the City University of New York school system that is recognized as both a minority and Hispanic serving institution by the US Department of Education
The aim of the 'Undergraduate Research Program to Promote Diversity' at Columbia University Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Department, is to increase the pool of students from underrepresented populations who are interested in pursuing graduate degrees in environmental health sciences. This will be a 2 year program of juniors and seniors from John Jay College who will carry out hands on research under the mentorship of EHS faculty members
