The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) has developed and is currently implementing a number of pre-college programs focused on increasing the number of underrepresented minority students into science and health careers. The """"""""South Texas Student/Teacher Biomedical Research Program"""""""" will provide opportunities for twelve underrepresented minority high school students for eight weeks in the summer to work on a research project which will reinforce their interest or provide the experience which will lead them to consider a career in science or health. Four high school teachers who teach in schools with a high minority enrollment or in-service teachers with an interest in teaching minority students will also participate in a six weeks laboratory experience. All of the student participants and teachers will be recruited from the San Antonio Metropolitan Area while the in- service teachers will be recruited from colleges and universities with a high minority enrollment. The participants will work in the laboratory of a faculty member in the UTHSCSA Dental, Graduate or Medical School. These faculty mentors will be selected based on their prior experience in working in our other programs with minority high school students and teachers. The participants will work on an individual project or a portion of an ongoing project under the direct supervision of the mentor. The high school students will be encouraged to continue to work with their mentor during the academic year and to use the project for a science fair activity. The service and in-service teachers will have the mentors assist them in developing their experience for future use in their classroom and provide them with materials which they may use in their teaching. Mentors will be asked to visit the schools of the participants to meet with other - students and present lectures. The high school students will be encouraged to participate in our other two academic year pre-college programs: the Biomedical and MEDPREP Programs. We will add the student participants to our existing computerized database to track their status after completion of high school in order to determine the number of students who enter a science or health career.
