REACH Pipeline Summer Research Experience for Minority and Underrepresented High School and Undergraduate Students

REACH是一个为期8周的暑期课程，面向对神经科学职业感兴趣的少数民族和代表性不足的大学和高中学生。与Jenny Libien博士（医学博士、博士）共同开发，和胡安·马科斯·阿拉尔孔博士研究经验自闭症的大学和高中学生（REACH）暑期课程，提供了代表性不足的大学生在追求职业生涯中的优势，在生物医学领域。REACH课程是一个以研究为中心的课程，其补充模块旨在通过全面的讲座和临床经验提高参与者对神经系统疾病的知识，重点是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）。学生还接受职业发展方面的指导，重点是心理健康差异和文化能力。这些经验将告知学生产生的假设和项目，学生将在整个夏天发展。该计划招募基础科学研究人员，医生，临床医生和研究生（博士和医学生）作为REACH导师。利用基于团队和同行指导的策略，学生参与者在他们的专职教师和研究生导师的帮助下，将开发关于ASD的研究假设，他们将在8周课程结束时通过实验解决这些假设。通过让参与者接触不同的导师群体，我们希望给他们留下深刻的印象，让他们了解神经科学和生物医学领域的生活道路和可达性。我们计划的长期目标是双重的，首先是增加进入神经科学/生物医学领域的代表性不足的少数民族的访问和保留。第二，通过我们的学生积极影响代表性不足的社区。

REACH is an 8-week pipeline summer course for minorities and underrepresented college and high school students interested in careers in neuroscience. Developed, together with Drs. Jenny Libien, MD, Ph.D., and Juan Marcos Alarcon, Ph.D., the Research Experience in Autism for College and High School students (REACH) summer program, provides underrepresented college students an advantage in pursuing a career in the biomedical fields. The REACH course is a research centric program with supplementary modules aimed at enhancing the participants’ knowledge of neurological disorders with emphasis in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through comprehensive lectures and clinical experiences. Students also receive instruction in career development with emphasis in mental health disparities and cultural competence. These experiences will inform the student-generated hypotheses and project that the students will develop throughout the summer. The program recruits basic science investigators, physicians, clinicians and graduate (PhD and medical students) students as REACH mentors. Utilizing team-based and peer-mentoring strategies, the student participants with the aid of their dedicated faculty and graduate student mentors will develop research hypotheses regarding ASD that they will experimentally resolve by the conclusion of the 8-week program. By exposing the participants to a diverse population of mentors, we hope to impress upon them the path and attainability of a life in the neuroscience and biomedical fields. Our program’s long-term goal is twofold, first to increase access and retention of underrepresented minorities into the neuroscience/biomedical field. Second, to positively impact underrepresented communities through our students.