California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) proposes to continue and refine its current Minority Student Development (MSD) Program. Our objective is to increase the number of our underrepresented ethnic minority science students selecting careers in biomedical research. The approach is to provide the students with employment as researchers, addressing real research problems under the guidance of experienced faculty research mentors. We will further develop student research success through implementation of a ten-week workshop on research skills and scientific communication. These skills will be reinforced by actual practice in the research laboratory and by frequent spoken and written presentations. Collaboration with other research programs on our campus, including MARC, MIRT, Bridges to the Ph.D., and the McNair scholars, will be increased and focused on facilitating student opportunities for success. The Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the Chairs of the participating departments have committed funds to support the MSD Program by providing faculty release time and continuing support for an MSD peer tutorial and mentoring program. Assessment and evaluation will continue to be an integral aspect of our MSD Program. We will use instruments that we have developed in our previous grant period to obtain both formative and summative evaluation of student recruitment, selection, and retention procedures, of attitudes of students about research, of the impact of specific types of projects on student skill development and career choices, and of the proposed workshop. We will introduce new tools designed to test our success in preparing the students for careers after they leave CSUF. We will also evaluate students' attitudes towards research and the impact of the MSD program. We will encourage and facilitate the attendance and participation of MSD students in regional and national meetings, and also in minority symposia. Use of the MSD Computer Facility will allow electronic portfolios of student work to be maintained, in part for use in evaluation. We also will evaluate what factors are important for student selection of a career in biomedical research. It is hoped that the procedures developed will be a model for similar studies at other institutions.
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