Student Development at Chicago State Unversity

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Located on the south-side of Chicago, Chicago State University (CSU) is a public liberal arts institution with a predominantly African-American student body. CSU serves the highest proportion of black students of all public universities in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa-Wisconsin contiguous four-state region where it awards the largest number of baccalaureate degree to this population. As an urban comprehensive university, CSU faces both the opportunity and the challenge of educating students who are mostly raised and educated within a ten-mile radius of the campus and are products of both an economically- disadvantaged background and high-school education which has not prepared them for college-level work. The CSU MBRS RISE Program is a response to the NIH initiative to increase the numbers of under-represented minorities in leadership positions in the biomedical sciences. The Program consists of hierarchical undergraduate training activities within the departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Physics that will prepare students for PhD-level studies and biomedical research careers. By the completion of the program students will have: (i) had several real research experiences, (ii) written, defended and executed a hypothesis-driven research plan, (iii) prepared and delivered at least one presentation at a regional or national research conference, (iv) participated in a grant application review panel, (v) completed at least an academic semester of service as a peer teacher in entry-level courses in their discipline which will provide training and perspective for their future role as TAs in graduate school, and (vi) developed competitive applications for graduate programs. The quantitative goal of the program is to achieve a minimum of seven students per year admitted to graduate programs (Ph.D. or PhD-bridge) during each of the first three years of funding and to increase this annual productivity by the fourth. The qualitative goals are to (i) increase student awareness of careers in biomedical research (ii) provide students with hands-on research experiences, (iii) assist students to develop competitive graduate-school applications, and (iv) provide support for a community of research scholars in the participating departments. The CSU RISE Program, along with the SCORE Program and other externally-funded research programs are designed in concert to provide expanded resources for students to train for biomedical research careers. The funding of the RISE Program will accelerate the realization of the institutional goal of becoming a major focal point of opportunities for under-represented minorities in biomedical training in the Chicago metropolitan area. Public Health Relevance: Located on the south-side of Chicago, Chicago State University (CSU) is a public liberal arts institution with a predominantly African-American student body. The CSU MBRS RISE Program is a response to the NIH initiative to increase the numbers of under-represented minorities in leadership positions in the biomedical sciences. The Program consists of hierarchical undergraduate training activities within the departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Physics that will prepare students for PhD-level studies and biomedical research careers. By the completion of the program students will have: (i) had several real research experiences, (ii) written, defended and executed a hypothesis-driven research plan, (iii) prepared and delivered at least one presentation at a regional or national research conference, (iv) participated in a grant application review panel, (v) completed at least an academic semester of service as a peer teacher in entry-level courses in their discipline which will provide training and perspective for their future role as TAs in graduate school, and (vi) developed competitive applications for graduate programs. The quantitative goal of the program is to achieve a minimum of seven students per year admitted to graduate programs (Ph.D. or PhD-bridge) during each of the first three years of funding and to increase this annual productivity by the fourth. The qualitative goals are to (i) increase student awareness of careers in biomedical research (ii) provide students with hands-on research experiences, (iii) assist students to develop competitive graduate-school applications, and (iv) provide support for a community of research scholars in the participating departments.