This is a new proposal to start the first T34 MARC U-STAR program at the University of Connecticut (UCONN). The UCONN program will be led by the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology (PNB) and will bring together some of our best mentors from four well-integrated academic units: the departments of PNB, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Psychology and Psychological Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The UCONN MARC U-STAR program features a comprehensive recruitment plan, a well-supported mentoring structure, a group of dedicated mentors with strong funding histories, individual and programmatic experience in mentoring under-represented minority students, an immersive educational program, and collaborations with existing programs at the University focused on maximizing underrepresented student recruitment and retention in STEM fields. The MARC U-STAR program will benefit from our previous success in implementing a Beckman Scholars Program and a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program within the department, and our departmental involvement in university wide diversity programs including LSAMP and the McNair Scholars Program. At its core, the MARC U-STAR program at UCONN will provide mentoring and hands-on research experience to 7 under-graduate students per year with each trainee receiving 24 months of direct support from this mechanism. The program will boast a wide scope of proposed research and didactic activities, a recruitment and retention plan that leverages local minority-serving programs currently present at UCONN including the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), the McNair Scholars Program, and the BRIDGE program for incoming freshman. Each student's training and mentoring plan will be informed by an Individualized Development Program (IDP). We expect that each trainee will complete an honors thesis in the biomedical sciences, will present and participate in scientific conferences, will contribute to original published works, and will gain the confidence, skills-training and experience needed to go on to gain advanced degrees in biomedical research. We also expect 70% of our trainees will pursuit a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences. Our specific goals are to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of underrepresented honors students, provide trainees with an extended opportunity to be engaged in scientific inquiry, and to develop a community of underrepresented undergraduate scholars with a shared commitment to contribute to society by pursuing advanced training in biomedical research.
STEM disciplines suffer from a lack of Underrepresented Racial Minority (URM) students pursuing advanced degrees that can lead to careers in biomedical science research. In part, this is because relatively few URM students are retained in STEM fields and engaged in active research experiences while undergraduates. The proposed UCONN MARC U-STAR program will work to overcome this trend by recruiting and providing much needed support to 14 talented URM honors students. Individualized development programs for each student will be integrated with larger existing diversity programs on the UCONN campus. Trainees in the MARC program will receive specialized, supervised, mentoring, didactic training through skill-development courses and workshops, and substantial hands-on research experience through the execution and completion of an honors thesis. We expect this program will expand the participation of URM students in UConn Honor's program, retain promising students in biomedical research fields and provide participants with the necessary skill sets for future entrance to graduate programs and careers in biomedical sciences.
