ROSWELL PARK RESEARCH EXPERIENCE PROGRAM--AMENDED

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DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) The purpose of this amended application is to request continued funding for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Summer Research Experience Program. This Program is currently in its 25th year of funding and has trained well over one thousand individuals. The goal of the program is to expose trainees to the challenges and rewards of a career in oncology. This proposal presents two distinct types of short-term, summer experience programs targeting: 1) medical and dental students (8 weeks); and 2) high school (7 weeks) and college (10 weeks) students. Central to the design of these seemingly dissimilar groups is the immersion of the student in the lie of a comprehensive cancer center under the guidance of strong mentorship. Specific programmatic goals are to: provide medical and dental students with clinical and basic scientific research experiences in oncology; and provide high school and college students with clinical opportunity to witness scientific creativity firsthand and to develop those attributes required for successful scientific investigation. Trainees will also be instructed in Internet and other web-based technologies and become familiar with accessing and utilizing these new educational tools. It is hoped that our program will either attract trainees to a career in oncology or, at the very least, increase their sensitivity as to the role of the cancer center in today's society. A unique aspect of our program is that it offers a continuum of experiences from high school through collegiate to professional schools. This may allow us to sustain the interests of select students through offerings that differ in perspective but all focus on the cancer problem. An Advisory Committee has been established to offer guidance in student recruitment, program content and feedback based on evaluation data. The program is evaluated at multiple levels and the evaluation plan is also designed to collect longer term outcome data on the trainee. Continued collection of and reflection on evaluation data has been especially instructive over the years in fine tuning our program. Trainees have been shown to continue on in careers in oncology and closely related fields.