The Graduate Group in Demography (GGD) is requesting a continuation of the NIA training grant in population and aging to the University of Pennsylvania. Three pre-doctoral positions are proposed the same number awarded for the current grant period. Penn is providing unusually broad and rich training at the pre-doctoral level, has been successful with the pre-doctoral program in aging, and is attracting a number of strong students. Although NIA has supported one post-doctoral position for the last five years, we are not requesting funds for post-doctoral fellows. The pre-doctoral training program will continue to be located in the Population Studies Center (PSC) and support students in Demography, Sociology, and Economics. A majority of students in the program will matriculate in the GGD, a unit of faculty members within the PSC with backgrounds in Sociology, Economics, and Demography. The principal aim of the pre-doctoral program is to train independent researchers for leading roles in social demography and population analysis as they relate to aging. This is achieved through: 1) intensive instruction in the methods, theoretical approaches, and empirical substance of demography and allied disciplines; and 2) progressive incorporation of students into faculty research activities. The GGD, with support from the NIA, has demonstrated over the years that it can recruit talented, promising students and prepare them for productive careers. In the past ten years, the GGD has placed 16 Ph.D. s in academic positions. Over the same ten years, 13 pre-doctoral students have been NIA trainees. All 13 have started, or are on their way to, strong careers in population, aging, economics, and/or health research. The recruitment and training of under-represented minorities, African Americans in particular, has been a point of emphasis for the PSC. We document a system of recruitment starting well before college graduation that has been in place for six years and that augurs well for the steady production of minority Ph.D. s in the future.
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