CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SAN MACROS U*STAR PROGRAM

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The CSUSM MARC U*STAR Program will prepare racial and ethnic minority students for professional research careers in the biomedical sciences. The Program will be part of the CSUSM Pipeline for Ph.D. Production which will include early outreach, high school outreach, pre-MARC, and MARC U*STAR training and research participation leading to placement of MARC Fellows into prestigious graduate and academic professional programs around the country. The Program will involve third and fourth year honors students in an integrated academic and research environment that will include: (1) participation in an eight-week Summer Research Training Institute offered by CSUSM science faculty; (2) enrollment in MARC Honors Courses (Communication Effectiveness I and 1I, and Integrated Capstone Studies I and II); (3) participation in a Seminar Series; (4) an opportunity to conduct research at CSUSM or at some approved external site; (5) comprehensive academic and career advising; and (6) preparation for the Graduate Record Exam along with mentoring in preparation of pre-doctoral fellowships (e.g., MARC Pre-doctoral Fellowship). The primary objective of our Program is to create a culture at CSUSM where racial and ethnic minority students view a career in the academic biomedical sciences as achievable. Creation of this culture of academic career achievement will allow the program to reach it goals to: (1) Place MARC Fellows in prestigious graduate programs around the country; (2) Strengthen the academic credential of MARC Fellows; (3) Increase the pool of CSUSM MARC U*STAR eligible students; and (4) Enhance the intellectual climate of the Science Division. An evaluation plan with measurable assessment criteria for each project goal will be used to monitor project success. Our Pipeline for Ph.D. Production will function to create a large pool of academically successful racial and ethnic minority science students where the possibility of becoming a MARC Fellow is a major incentive. The proposed program director has a long history of successful operation of the UC Santa Cruz MARC Program from 1980-91 and is ideally suited to lead the proposed CSUSM MARC U*STAR Program. Consistent with the MARC Program's goals, the CSUSM Mission Statement commits the university to creating a student-focused multicultural teaching and learning environment. In this regard, the campus has one of the largest percentages of ethnic minority faculty of any university in the country. The campus commitment to Excellence Through Diversity coupled with its new science and academic buildings equipped with modern scientific instruments and powerful instructional resources makes CSUSM an ideal location to initiate a successful MARC U*STAR Program.