) The purpose of this proposal is to support short-term cancer-related research assistantships for medical students at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), with the ultimate goal of stimulating students to engage in research as part of their professional activities and/or seek careers in academic medicine. The immediate goal is to increase students' knowledge and understanding of cancer research through hands-on experiential learning in investigative settings with faculty mentors. The Cancer-Related Student Research Program is under direction of the Associate Dean for Education. It is part of the larger Summer Student Research Program. Guidance, oversight and monitoring are provided by a broad-based Cancer Education Program Committee. Individual student projects are carried out as part of faculty-initiated research programs. There has been substantial progress toward achieving objectives of the 1992 renewal application. Program capacity has increased from 18 to 30 positions. Project offerings now include 20% that are behavioral or epidemiologic in nature and more than 25% related to the health of women or minorities. Students' research experiences are enriched by two seminar series, one on general biomedical research topics and one on recent advances in cancer research. Students whose work is judge meritorious during a Cancer-Related Student Research Symposium have gone on to win institutional awards for outstanding research and represent NJMS at the National Student Research Competition. Outcome studies find that 25% of former participants hold full-time academic positions in US medical schools and 44% subsequently contributed to the scholarly literature. The present proposal has six specific aims: (1) Continue providing a structured program of participation in cancer-related research for medical students, (2) Encourage participation in consecutive years by offering the program to accepted students in the summer prior to matriculation, (3) Enrich the scope of research opportunities available to students by establishing an educational relationship with the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, (4) Examine impediments to participation by African-American and Hispanic students and seek to ameliorate identified barriers, (5) Establish a separate category of support for college students along with a short-term tracking system to document academic and/or career choices following graduation, and (6) Maintain and update data bases documenting long-term outcomes of the program and continue surveys of former participants to assess other benefits of participation.
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