A Summer School of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology has been operating successfully at Michigan State University since 2005. The program will relocate in 2010 to Emory University. Leaders in the field will be brought to Emory's campus from all over the U.S. to discuss topics such as sex differences in behavior and the nervous system, the effects of hormones on brain structures and processes, and the neuroendocrinology of stress. Participants will receive training in writing, data archiving and bioinformatics, and the analysis of hormone-dependent behaviors. The course is intended for undergraduates (or people who have recently received their undergraduate degree) who are contemplating applying to graduate school. The aim is to give trainees an appreciation for behavioral neuroendocrinology as a discipline as well as a sense of what it is like to have a career in science. One important aspect of the course is that the trainees interact with professors and graduate students who are accomplished scientists. Following the one-week course, trainees attend the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN) to consolidate what they have learned and to expand their social contacts within the field. Attending the SBN meeting is an excellent way for trainees to find graduate programs and faculty mentors with matching interests. A mixture of students who have expressed interest in a career in science will be brought together, and recruitment efforts will target underrepresented minorities. Thus, the overall goal is to increase the strength and the diversity of the applicant pool in this area of science nationwide.
The goal of our program is to identify talented undergraduates who are considering entering graduate school in science, bring them to a central location, and expose them to both lectures and practical demonstrations as a way of convincing them that basic science can offer an exciting and rewarding career. The pedagogical portion of the program lasts approximately one week, after which the participants are all flown to the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. At the meeting, not only do they attend the formal talks, but they are more likely to engage in informal discussions and quality interactions with scientists as a result of the social contacts already made in the summer school. Their social circles within the field are thus significantly enlarged, and the odds of making contacts with scientists that share their interests, for example as research mentors, are greatly improved. By holding the summer school in Atlanta, we hoped to (1) increase the pool of faculty instructors and (2) establish a rotation model whereby the summer school moves every few years to a different institution. The combination of Emory and Georgia State University offers a high concentration of faculty who specialize in behavioral neuroendocrinology. We believe that hosting the summer school in Atlanta also allows us to better recruit students from underrepresented groups as well as better utilize resources and faculty associated with the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. The 2010 summer school at Emory was highly successful, recruiting 10 students, half of which were members of underrepresented minority groups. 90% of the 2010 participants have entered or are planning to enter Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduate programs; the remaining student is currently working as a research technician in molecular biology. Our outcomes data show that participation in the program increased the degree to which self identity as a scientists is central to self-concept.
