The University at Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is soliciting funds to continue to develop and strengthen the BUILDing SCHOLARS (Building Undergraduate Infrastructure Leading to Diversity: Southwest Consortium of Health-Oriented education Leaders And Research Scholars) Center aimed at training the next generation of biomedical and socio-behavioral scientists and engineers in the US Southwest region, where a large majority of the student population is underserved and underrepresented. The Training Core (TC) of BUILDing SCHOLARS houses a progressively advanced, writing-intensive and rigorous yet flexible research training program that starts as early as the Freshman year and culminating in a senior thesis or a peer-reviewed publication prior to graduation. The activities are centered around seven strong interdisciplinary research nodes: addiction, cancer, degenerative and chronic diseases, environmental health, health disparities, infectious diseases and translational biomedicine. Students who do research in these seven nodes major in the following approved BUILDing SCHOLARS majors: anthropology, biochemistry, biological sciences, cellular and molecular biochemistry, chemistry, civil engineering*, clinical laboratory sciences, computer science*, electrical and computer engineering*, engineering leadership*, forensic sciences, geological sciences, health promotion, kinesiology, mathematical sciences (including applied mathematics), mechanical engineering*, metallurgical and materials engineering*, nursing, physics, psychology, public health sciences, rehabilitation sciences, social work and sociology. All majors denoted with an asterisk above must declare biomedical engineering as a minor. The Training Core will have the following four Specific Aims.
TC Specific Aim 1 : Continue and transition recruitment activities to optimize recruitment of students from Pipeline Partners and the region applying for and receiving BUILD traineeships.
TC Specific Aim 2 : Continue to positively impact BUILDing SCHOLARS trainees? and affiliates? retention, and research and science self-efficacy through FYRIS.
TC Specific Aim 3 : Continue to engage trainees in mentored research experiences and transition to institutional support.
TC Specific Aim 4 : Continue to provide student support and development activities to retain, graduate, and prepare students for graduate school and future biomedical research careers. The TC Specific Aims align with the Overall Component Specific Aims (see Overall Component) as follows:
TC Aim 1 aligns with the Overall Component Aims 2 and 5;
TC Aim 2 aligns with the Overall Component Aim 5;
TC Aim 3 aligns with the Overall Component Aims 1, 2 and 5; and TC Aim 4 aligns with the Overall Component Aim 5. The objectives and activities that will be pursued under each of these aims are intended to enhance, continue and institutionalize all interventions developed and implemented in phase I, and to disseminate the most impactful interventions nationally. Thus, in phase II, we will continue to incorporate authentic, faculty-driven research experiences into course work by leveraging existing resources and focusing on student training with the intent to sustain research in these activities long-term. Undergraduate students will continue to be recruited into the program as incoming freshmen, or as rising sophomores and juniors. In phase II, the number of trainees appointed will be ramped down, while university support for the trainees will be simultaneously ramped up such that 60 will be appointed in year 1, 35 will be appointed in year 2, 23 will be appointed in year 3, and 18 will be appointed in year 4 and beyond. UTEP is committing to fully support (tuition and stipend via student employment) 5, 10, 12, 15, and 18 BUILDing SCHOLARS in years 1,2,3,4 and 5 of phase II, respectively. Thus, the 5th year of phase II and beyond, UTEP will fully support all BUILDing SCHOLARS trainees financially. The duration of the proposed training will vary depending on the exact number of credits students have at the start of the program, so students will be supported for a minimum of 2 years for those entering into the traineeship as juniors, and for a maximum of 4 years for those students entering as freshmen. While we do not expect incoming freshmen to have been involved in prior research, the proposal seeks to increase recruiting efforts in the Freshman Year Research Intensive Sequence (FYRIS), where research is actively woven into the course curriculum. Thus, entering sophomores and juniors may have been involved in course-based research experiences before entering phase II of BUILDing SCHOLARS.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 38 publications
