(Collaborative Research) A Collaborative Approach to Work-Based Learning: Addressing the Needs of Community College Biotechnology Students and their Research University Mentors

虽然社区学院的技术培训可以为学生在生物技术行业的工作做好准备，但行业和学术雇主有时不愿雇用学士学位以下的学生。成功的实习计划，结合工作为基础的学习和本科研究经验，可以提高社区学院培养的学生对这些职位的竞争力。弗朗西斯科城市学院（CCSF）正在与加州大学弗朗西斯科分校（UCSF）的职业规划和发展办公室合作解决这个问题。 这项合作旨在使CCSF的生物技术实习计划与UCSF的博士级导师培训计划保持一致。CCSF的学生将在UCSF导师的监督下从事研究项目，同时双方都将接受如何建立有效的导师/实习生关系的培训。 通过这种方式，该项目将支持UCSF导师和CCSF实习生之间的富有成效的关系。这种合作的导师/实习生模式预计将帮助实习生发展技术和就业技能，并帮助导师提高他们培训和监督多元化劳动力的能力。这个项目的目标是增加CCSF实习生谁与训练有素的UCSF导师的工作，并提高实习生导师关系的质量。 该项目旨在通过循证的，迭代的方法来实现这些目标，以课程和计划的发展：a）确定CCSF学生和他们的UCSF导师的需求; B）修改CCSF实习和UCSF导师培训计划，以应对未解决的需求;和c）检查是否联合干预，以调整培训课程，提高实习生和导师的经验。 该项目包括一个研究组成部分，可以贡献新的知识和理解的做法，增加辅导研究经验的成功。 此外，该项目确定的强化课程、干预措施和工具可更广泛地用于开发和加强实习项目的专业发展、导师的研究生和博士后培训、教师培训和行业专业培训，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Although technical training at community colleges can prepare students for work in the biotechnology industry, industry and academic employers are sometimes hesitant to hire students with less than bachelor-level degrees. Successful internship programs that integrate work-based learning and undergraduate research experiences can increase the competitiveness of community college-trained students for these positions. The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is collaborating with the Office of Career Planning and Development at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to address this problem. This collaboration aims to align the Biotechnology Internship program at CCSF with the PhD-level Mentor Training program at UCSF. The CCSF students will work on research projects under supervision of UCSF mentors, while both are being trained on how to build effective mentor/intern relationships. In this way, the project will support productive relationships between UCSF mentors and their CCSF interns. This collaborative mentor/intern model is expected to help the interns develop technical and employability skills, and help mentors enhance their ability to train and supervise a diverse workforce. The goals of this project are to increase the number of CCSF interns who work with trained UCSF mentors and to improve the quality of the intern-mentor relationship. The project aims to achieve these goals through an evidence-based, iterative approach to curriculum and program development by: a) identifying the needs of the CCSF students and their UCSF mentors; b) modifying the CCSF Internship and UCSF Mentor Training programs to respond to unaddressed needs; and c) examining whether joint interventions to align both training curricula improves the intern's and mentor's experience. The project includes a research component that can contribute new knowledge about and understanding of practices that increase the success of mentored research experiences. Furthermore, enhanced curricula, interventions, and tools identified by this project can be used more broadly to develop and enhance professional development for internship programs, graduate and postdoctoral training of mentors, faculty training, and industry professional training, with a focus on improved retention of diverse student populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.