Cancer Research Career Enhancement and Related Activities

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PROJECT SUMMARY/NARRATIVE – CANCER RESEARCH CAREER ENHANCEMENT (CRCE) One of the main goals of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is to educate and train the next generation of cancer researchers and physician-scientists, and to support the career development of trainees at all levels specializing in cancer research and patient care. The CRCE Core at the DLDCCC plays a key role in integrating and developing programmatic activities to leverage existing career enhancement activities across BCM. The CRCE Core provides coordination to ongoing career enhancement activities, as well as initiating new directions to enrich and synergize trainees, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty at BCM. The Core Specific Aims are: (1) To provide cancer research career enhancement activities across the continuum of trainees; and (2) To coordinate cancer education and training activities across the DLDCCC. These activities will be evaluated, both formatively and summatively, to gauge (1) the quality and effectiveness with which career enhancement components are delivered and implemented, and (2) the overall value of the experiences provided to students, fellows, and faculty members. Existing evaluation strategies conducted by each contributing program will be leveraged to document impact on DLDCCC participants. The goal of the CRCE Core is to provide career enhancement activities that prepares all trainees and faculty for productive careers as biomedical cancer researchers or cancer healthcare professionals. The CRCE Core is actively engaged with middle and high school students through BCM’s Center for Educational Outreach to develop evidence-based models that support high quality science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine educational. For undergraduate involvement, the CRCE has taken initiatives with helping coordinate summer research programs for students interested in cancer-focused research through the SMART program, R25 PREP program (focused on underrepresented students), and a recently funded P20 collaborative research and education program. The CRCE is active in graduate student enhancement through the involvement of leadership members in the curriculum design and career development activities. Finally, the CRCE has been enhancing the education and career development for senior-level trainees including post-doctoral fellows, both basic science and clinical, and junior faculty through organization of cancer-related (clinical and basic science) lecture series and facilitating career-enhancing activities in conjunction with the BCM Career Development Center and other programs at BCM and surrounding institutions.