The Initiative for Maximizing Student Development at Vanderbilt University exists to increase the number of Ph.D.'s awarded to graduate students in biomedical research who are underrepresented, as broadly defined by the NIH. Our nation faces many challenges in biomedical research to find better treatments and hopefully cures for a range of debilitating and/or fatal diseases such as cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. The innovation and problem solving needed to make progress in these areas requires a diverse group of talented scientists, because diversity generates greater numbers of new perspectives and more inventive solutions. For these reasons and given the demographic shifts in the population, the Vanderbilt IMSD has a key mission to ensure that the most talented of this country's increasingly diverse youth are trained for careers in biomedical research, especially those whose talent would be otherwise unrecognized or unrealized. We want to ensure our diverse Ph.D. trainees are well prepared to enter a range of career paths, but particularly the professoriate where, as scientific leaders, they will be responsible for drivig novel problem-solving approaches and training the next generation to follow. By implementing a holistic admissions approach, we have fully achieved the goal of enrolling a diverse group of graduate trainees, now ranging from 20-28% URM in our first-year graduate programs. Moreover, the Vanderbilt IMSD program, which began in 2007, has so far produced 13 Ph.D. graduates who have gone on to either academic postdoctoral positions at research-intensive universities, biopharma, or in one case a tenure-track faculty position at a minority serving institution. Nearly two dozen more advanced IMSD graduate students will be completing their Ph.D. training in the next 2-3 years ahead. We propose to maintain all of the support and development programs and comprehensive mentoring, especially peer mentoring, that have been vital to our IMSD program's success. Taking our cue from the adage begin with the end in mind, we are planning a new initiative Joining the Professoriate that will focus on the development of leadership skills through both explicit training (in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Business) and frequent exposures to highly successful visiting URM faculty role models. Although URMs now comprise one-third of the US college-age population, they earn only 15-17% of the B.S./B.A. degrees in STEM fields. Thus, in order to sustain our progress, we need to address the undergraduate pipeline. In collaboration with the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, we have designed an innovative pre-college summer science outreach program to offer URM pre-college students an opportunity to begin developing a science identity while still in high school. Simultaneously, the IMSD graduate students who design, direct, and implement the program will gain valuable leadership and teaching skills. We plan regular summative and formative assessments of all our programs to ensure they are adding value and aligned with our mission.
Biomedical research holds great promise for finding better treatments and hopefully cures for a range of debilitating and/or fatal diseases such as cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. The innovation and problem solving needed to make progress in these areas requires a diverse group of talented scientists, because diversity generates greater numbers of new perspectives and more inventive solutions. For these reasons, and given the demographic shifts in the population, the Vanderbilt Initiative for Maximizing Student Development has a key mission to ensure the most talented of this country's increasingly diverse youth are trained for careers in biomedical research, especially those whose talent would be otherwise unrecognized or unrealized.
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