Biomedical Research Training at Jackson State University

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The inclusive goal of MARC U*STAR Program at JSU is to increase the number of baccalaureates in Biology, Chemistry and Psychology who go on to earn Ph.D. degrees in the biomedical sciences. To achieve this, JSU will select students meeting certain criteria and implement a program of undergraduate research training, including instruction in responsible conduct of research; curriculum enhancement; and graduate bridging activities. The undergraduate research training will begin during an initial summer of intramural research with JSU faculty members and continue during the following two academic years. TraineesTwo workshops will be conducted during the intramural summer program. On Friday mornings, a GRE workshop will be given and on Friday afternoons, a doctoral preparation workshop will be given. Responsible conduct of research will be introduced in the afternoon workshops and continued during the academic year. An extramural summer research internship with research faculty of outstanding research universities will occur in the second summer of the two-year MARC traineeship. An Honors colloquia will be offered for each term of the four semester program. Each trainee will be required to successfully take the GRE and apply to five graduate programs leading to the Ph.D. degree. A Pre-MARC Young Scientists Program will be implemented to identify and introduce freshmen and sophomores to the MARC U*STAR program and to biomedical research as a career and educational goal. The students will be introduced to the tools of research and will attend biomedical research seminars, while developing their research interests. The program evaluation will consist of two components, an external evaluation and an internal evaluation. The summative external evaluation will provide the faculty and institutional executive staff an independent review of the strengths, values and potential impact of overall program accomplishments. It will also provide valuable information on expansion possibilities, program improvement and enhancing benefits to students. This evaluation will serve as a means for measuring faculty and student growth and the progress of the JSU's unified plan to strengthen its biomedical research capacity. It will focus on faculty productivity, namely, whether the project increases the number of faculty publications, faculty presentations, and faculty submissions of research grant applications to NIH and/or other funding agencies. The formative internal evaluation will use a Program Effectiveness Model, which insures that the planning loop is closed and that evaluative results are used for program improvements.