Los Angeles is one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the United States. Approximately 60% of the nearly nine million residents of Los Angeles county were of ethnic origin. The proximity of these ethnic communities to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center ensures the feasibility and relative ease in the recruitment of outstanding minority students and minority teachers or teachers from schools with a significant number of minority students. Furthermore, there are more than fifty high schools in the vicinity served by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Since 1978, Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute and Harbor Collegium has continuously provided a Summer Minority High School Students Research Apprentice Program for local graduating high school seniors. The applicants are nominated by the chairperson and instructors of the science department from high schools in the Southwest Region of Los Angeles county. The applications are reviewed and selected by a Committee of full time faculty members at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The selected applicants are assigned, according to their preference of interests in research areas, to various laboratories and then work for nine weeks under the director of an experienced and established medical investigator who assigns them to ongoing research projects. The participants in the summer research program are involved in all of the intellectual and scientific aspects of the research laboratories. Their experience is supplemented by direct participation in the academic enrichment programs where they can observe a diversity of biomedical research and other aspects of clinical medical practices. The teachers will also actively interact with a small group of 4 to 5 student participants in this summer program. At the conclusion of their experience, they will provide a written report summarizing their research works, and present a short oral report to the assembly of summer students, teachers, faculty mentors, parents and guests. The performance of the program will be evaluated by input from participants and mentors via anonymous questionnaires completed at the end of the summer program, and follow-up assessment of the career paths of both students and teachers. This program has been enthusiastically supported by the faculty and is very popular in the local community and to date, the program has graduated 182 students who are now enrolled in colleges universities, or professional schools leading to careers in health sciences. Some of them have already graduated from medical or graduate schools. This summer students and teachers research program is so designed that it will meet all criteria as defined by the new NCRR initiative: K-12 teachers and high school students.
