Two divisions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Science's online career development magazine """"""""Next Wave"""""""", and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, are teaming together to propose a program for developing a Minority Scientists Network that will focus on encouraging and supporting the career aspirations of underrepresented minority (URM) students in the sciences. Through this grant, AAAS will construct a Web portal consisting of an online journal, resources, a funding opportunities database and will provide supporting outreach activities. The journal will publish articles bimonthly on topics such as news relevant to the URM students and the faculty guiding their training, advice on identifying effective graduate science programs, how to keep the debt burden manageable, advice from mentors, and profiles of current minority graduate students and faculty. Students using the Network will learn how to smooth the transition between undergraduate and graduate school, and to develop strategies to negotiate the graduate school system. The second component of the portal will consist of materials and resources available online that will directly benefit the students, faculty and administrators by reducing the time spent hunting for information. Examples of online resources are such items as a best practices database on mentoring programs, links to reports about minority graduate science education, and a listserv to connect all of the Network participants. This listserv and the """"""""In Search Of..."""""""" feature will provide a vehicle with which individuals at MARC/MBRS institutions can unite with scientific communities at larger research-intensive universities. The third component of the portal consists of up-to-date information on summer research opportunities for URM students and funding for research and institutional efforts through an expansion of the existing GrantsNet program. The portal content of the Network will be balanced with outreach activities to create real networks in addition to the virtual ones. Local activities hosted by Network Campus Representatives at MARCIMBRS institutions will be complemented with workshops at national scientific meetings on mentoring (for faculty) and on transitioning between academic institutions (for students). Using this three-tiered approach (local, national and virtual activities), our goal is to build a network of minority students and the scientists involved in their mentoring and education to improve the dissemination of biomedical science career resources and thereby to increase the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in the sciences.
