The mission of the Cal State Fullerton MARC U*STAR Program is to prepare promising minority students for graduate school and a research career in biomedical or behavioral science. The success of the Program will be measured in the short-term by Scholar enrollment and retention in doctoral programs at respected U.S. universities and in the long term by their progress toward, and eventual entry into, research-oriented careers. Over the course of the funding period, we propose to have 70% of all Scholars enter high-quality doctoral programs. The short-term goals are to: 1) recruit, select and retain well-qualified students, 2) develop MARC Scholar's skills for doing scientific research, 3) improve MARC Scholars' written and oral communication skills, 4) prepare MARC Scholars academically for PhD or MD/PhD programs, 5) develop in MARC Scholars an understanding and appreciation of professional integrity issues encountered during a research career, 6) provide MARC Scholars with personalized career and academic advisement, and 7) prepare MARC Scholars for the demands of a research career as minority scientists. Many of these goals will be met as Scholars participate in laboratory research with a faculty mentor that culminates with the defense of a written thesis, achieve high grades in academically-challenging courses, including a proposed scientific writing and career- enhancement GE course, a one-semester-long Research Ethics course and a four-semester MARC Pro- seminar series, which focuses on Scholar development. To measure our short-term progress, the Program will use specially-developed assessment tools, forms, and e-journal entries. The mentors and Program Director will complete the forms, and the Scholars will create the e-journals. On a yearly basis, all MARC Scholars will be expected to improve to, or achieve at, Level 4-5 (scale 1-5) in laboratory performance, scientific skills, and oral and written communication abilities, so that by the end of their two-year participation in the Program they have shown improvement, or high achievement, in at least 75% of the measurable objectives. To measure long-term success, the Program will track all MARC graduates periodically by e-mail or phone as they progress towards their PhD degrees and beyond. The Cal State Fullerton MARC U*STAR Program will not only contribute to the success of the participating MARC Scholars in their research careers, but will have a broader impact on the participating departments and colleges at our institution via the enhancement of curricula and an increased richness in the student research environment.
The goals of the Cal State Fullerton MARC U*STAR Program are to 1) provide a complete research training experience to a select group of underrepresented, minority undergraduates, 2) place graduating Scholars in respected health-oriented (biomedical or behavioral) doctoral programs, and 3) ensure the success of each Scholar in a specified PhD program. Our MARC U*STAR Program will increase the number of highly-trained, minority scientists in the US who contribute to the immediate and long term health-related research concerns of our nation.
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