This proposal seeks to establish a T34 MARC undergraduate training program at Vanderbilt University that is structured to support the enhancement of achievement and retention in STEM majors of students from underrepresented groups. In support of the overall NIH mission, the overarching objective of the program is to provide an exceptional training environment for the next generation of diverse and inclusive biomedical scientists and faculty, and is built on the foundation of a strong training faculty with exceptional records of scholarship, research support and undergraduate mentoring, and an exceptional institutional environment with core emphases on undergraduate research Immersion, and institution-wide dedication to increasing diversity and Inclusive Excellence. The heart of this mission is expressed in the academic and research goals of the program, which are to provide our students with a strong didactic foundation in the STEM disciplines through core curriculum offerings, and to provide them with the opportunity to carry out state-of-the-art research in the laboratories of a group of highly successful and committed mentors, here at Vanderbilt, and for one summer at another institution. In addition, the program has strong emphases on professional and career development, and on quantitative literacy and rigorous science, with the objective of building the requisite skills needed for success in graduate school and beyond, and of training an inclusive cadre of future independent investigators in biomedical research. The proposed MARC Program at Vanderbilt is an interdisciplinary program that encompasses 40 faculty preceptors from 3 different colleges and schools and 7 departments, including the departments of Biological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Neuroscience, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology. These departments currently host ca. 700 exceptionally qualified undergraduates that are MARC eligible, providing an outstanding opportunity for recruitment. The proposal requests support for 20 MARC students each year and provides the rationale and justification for this request.
The goals and training philosophy of the proposed MARC at Vanderbilt T34 Institutional Training Program are congruent with and contribute to the overarching mission of the MARC mechanism - to develop a diverse pool of undergraduates who complete their baccalaureate degree, and transition into and complete biomedical, research-focused higher degree programs (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.). Our training program is designed to ensure that future biomedical faculty and researchers are drawn from the entire diverse undergraduate talent pool at Vanderbilt to expand and enable a more inclusive and productive biomedical research community. The relevance of this training for public health cannot be understated, as it is the education and research training of young scientists that will provide the foundation for future discovery.
