The UCSD MARC U-STAR Fellows Programwill annually prepare 16 ethnically underrepresented undergraduate students for biomedical research careers in academics or private industry. Due to-the growing interrelatedness and interdisciplinary nature of contemporary research activity, a variety of research- associated departments and programs have collaborated to submit the proposal, i.e., Bioengineering, Biological Sciences, Chemistry-Biochemistry, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Center for Language Research, and the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center. The MARC initiative is further provided direct nstitutional support through the enthusiastic participation of some 90 research faculty from across a wide range of UCSD graduate and undergraduate programs, the School of Medicine, and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. MARC Fellows will participate in a 24-month research regimen under the personalized supervision/mentorship of research faculty, as well as take part in a variety of MARC-specific workshops, research-related writing activities leading to authorship/co-authorship of a paper to be submitted for publication to undergraduate science journals, career exploration activities featuring practicing professionals, ravel for research presentations to regional or national professional meetings, and intensive summer research immersion programs, one at UCSD, one at another R-1 institution. A major UCSD MARC U-STAR goal will be establishment of a strong, underrepresented student research-based support community through which MARC Fellows can easily network and collaborate with peers involved in a wide variety of other undergraduate research programs housed under UCSD's Academic Enrichment Programs in which MARC U-STARS will be located. A second major element of UCSD MARC will involve highly focused academic support and research preparation for underrepresented freshman, sophomore and new community college transfer students through the Pre-MARC Activities. This initiative will annually provide 50-60 students with a wide variety of pre-research activities in order to fuel their growing interest to enter MARC and, subsequently, Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D. programs as a means entering productive, exciting research careers.
MARC's primary mission is to attract, train and prepare highly qualified minority students for entry into health-related research in the biomedical sciences. Through such training, the nation's health/medical research workforce can become dramatically more diversified as ethnic populations previously underrepresented in such disciplines are provided expanded access and support from scientists and health research professionals at UCSD.
