There is a need for minority students to participate in research activities to develop their investigative talents and increase the pool of accomplished minority biomedical investigators. Numbers of minority scientists are very low in relation to minority representation in the general population. While there is strong interest in the scientific community in attracting minority students into research careers. few minority students opt for science degrees and research careers, and few minority graduates of health professional schools go on to investigative careers. The effort to increase the number of minority scientists should begin at the precollege level. More minority students must be exposed to the excitement and satisfaction of research and academic careers. Over the years, Marshall University has shown a solid commitment to strengthen the quality of precollege science education. Faculty members from the School of Medicine and the college of Science have participated as mentors in the NIH funded Minority High School Student Research Apprentice program (MHSSRAP) for the last eleven years. We volunteer our time for Science-By-Mail, Science-By-Electronic-Mail, Project Seed and many other activities. This Program to Encourage Minority Scientists (PEMS) is designed to provide opportunities for underrepresented monitory high school students, high school science inservice teachers and preservice teachers to become exposed to biomedical research. We are building on our successful experience. The PEMS will make it possible for eight minority high school students, one inservice high school science teacher, and one preservice teacher to participate full-time in research projects for eight weeks during the summer at Marshall University under the supervision of a faculty member who will mentor the participant. The PEMS will be under the direction of a committee that will be responsible for program announcements, applicant selection, mentor selection and orientation, seminar content and scheduling, and budget oversight. The committee will be chaired by the Principal Investigator and staffed by representative faculty and staff of Marshall University. Each participant will be assigned to a laboratory which is carrying out investigations related to biomedical sciences. To offer the participants a broader overview of scientific research than is available in individual laboratories, a series of seminars will be scheduled during the summer and the following academic year. At the end of the summer, each participant will present a review of his/her research experience. In an effort to broadcast biomedical sciences to a larger student population, PEMS students and inservice teachers will schedule mentors to meet with high school science classes of clubs. Two social events will be conducted each year to foster group identity and help cement relationships between participants and mentors. At the end of the summer, and participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire evaluating the PEMS. We will also monitor the career course of each participant for the following five years. Mentors will also be asked to assess the PEMS. Both participants' and mentors' critiques will be reviewed by the PEMS Committee as soon as collected and a summary report of each year will prepared by the Principal Investigator.
