The MBRS-IMSD Program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) started in 1996 as a comprehensive effort to increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate and graduate students pursuing biomedical research careers. The most important aim of the program has been to increase considerably the rate at which undergraduate participants enter graduate programs following graduation and substantially augment the enrollment in URM students in PhD programs at UCI. Independent paid research conducted under the direction of faculty mentors serve as a core element to induce MBRS students to pursue graduate school and research-focused careers. Over 100 faculty with funded research programs serve as preceptors of MBRS trainees. The program offers a series of components to increase the interest, motivation and academic preparedness of undergraduates to enter graduate programs, including a peer tutoring/mentoring program of science classes, a seminar series, workshops on laboratory methods, scientific communications, GRE preparation, application to graduate school and a science writing class designed for the program. The graduate component of the program is designed to provide a comprehensive training for URM Ph.D. students to excel in graduate school. The program provides a summer research training program for juniors and seniors from other universities, orientation on the application process for prospective URM graduate students, a summer program for incoming URM PhD students to prepare them for the core graduate classes, counseling and orientation about the graduate studies in a non-departmental setting, a workshop to prepare oral exams after the first year in the PhD program and a class specifically designed to write a paper to be _ublished in a peer-reviewed journal and preparation for advancement to candidacy and dissertation -esearch.
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