There continues to be a shortage of young people, particularly young people from under-represented groups, entering careers in basic research. One strategy to boost these numbers is to provide programs that discuss science generally. However, such programs suffer by being so broad in subject matter that they might not engage students' interest in scientific problems, and being so vague in terms of what it's like to be a scientist that the students have only a theoretical notion of what such a career entails. An alternative strategy is to identify a particular field of study, find students who have already shown some interest in that particular field, and then bring them together to give them hands-on experience in a lab and ample social opportunities to meet and talk to active scientists in that field. In partnership with a consortium of universities, including several traditionally African-American undergraduate colleges, we will bring 10 undergraduate students from around the country to our campus for a one-week intensive course in behavioral neuroendocrinology: the study of the influence of hormones on behavior, and the influence of behavior on hormone secretion. We will identify the students by soliciting from laboratories engaged in behavioral endocrinology research. In our inaugural session offered last year, we received over 50 strong candidates for 8 positions. In order to capitalize on this learning experience, and to give the students a deeper understanding of the field, as well as a sense of what life as a scientist is like, we will send these students to the subsequent meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN). At the SBN meeting, the students have the opportunity to have "lunch with the professors" from yet other universities and discuss current and future scientific endeavers. We are requesting funds to pay the airfares, registration and lodging for these undergraduates for both the short course on campus and the SBN meeting thereafter, as well as funds to bring neuroendocrinologists from other campuses to serve as instructors. What is unique about this experience is the hands-on laboratory training, the intensive social interaction with scientists, from half a dozen different universities, before and during a professional meeting, and the exposure to a wide range of working graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the field. Bringing together an mixture of students, emphasizing students from under-represented groups, who have expressed interest in a career in science, will increase the strength and the diversity of the applicant pool in this area of science nationwide. Our goal is to let these students see how intellectually and socially satisfying a career in science can be so that more of them choose this career.
