The Jackson State University NIMH-COR Honors High School Research Education Program seeks to provide special research training experiences to talented minority high school students who are underrepresented in the behavioral and biomedical research arenas. Students who are interested in pursuing an undergraduate education in Psychology, Biology or Chemistry are eligible to participate. The mission of this program is to stimulate interest and motivation among high school students from racial/ethnic minority groups to make a career choice in science disciplines related to mental health. Four high school students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher (4.0 scale) will be selected from area high schools to participate in a hands-on research experience under the supervision of an experienced research mentor. Students will be active in the program during their junior and/or senior years. Year-round research training activities will be made available to the trainees; however, during the summer, for a period of 8-10 weeks, the trainees will work full-time in one of the research laboratories in psychology, biology or chemistry at JSU or participating laboratories. The students will gain experience in research design, instrumentation, data collection, data analysis, research report writing, and preparing a poster and/or slide presentation at a professional meeting. Through monthly seminars and 1-2 supervisory sessions per month during the school term, trainees will be given instructions and assignments by their mentors and/or the Program Director. Specifically, these sessions will focus on numerous research skills, including how to conduct a literature review, how to summarize research articles, how to use word-processing and statistical software, how to formulate a research question, how to carry out laboratory procedures, etc.
