Pipelines into Biostatistics: Training in Quantitative Public Health

描述（由申请人提供）：1994年，哈佛大学公共卫生学院（HSPH）的生物统计系为少数族裔和代表性不足的本科生建立了定量科学暑期项目，目的是鼓励这些学生未来参与公共卫生、生物医学和生物统计学的研究生课程。这个第一个同类项目成为全国类似项目的典范，继续并加强了这一非常重要的使命，即增加公共卫生和生物统计学的多样性。2010年，美国数学学会（American Mathematical Society）授予哈佛大学的数学项目“与众不同奖”（Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference Award），这是一个年度奖项，旨在表彰那些“在将更多未被充分代表的少数群体的个人带入数学科学方面做出杰出贡献的项目……通过可复制的方法。”该奖项的评语是：“该项目为国家培养更多从事生物统计学和公共卫生职业的少数族裔学生做出了卓越的贡献。”现在，在2011年，我们正着手我们的管道开发的第二阶段。根据我们的经验，我们已经认识到，虽然一个单一的短期暑期项目经验可以在建立管道的第一部分方面取得巨大成功，但它不足以增加我们在生物统计学研究生、研究员和教师中所需要的少数群体的存在。因此，我们建议加强和扩展我们在夏季项目中启动的管道，为我们的项目提供以下全新的组成部分：一年一度的研讨会将由当前和过去的项目参与者、教师、研究员、研究生和外部咨询委员会参加，并将由各级参与者进行口头报告和海报。研讨会将具有学术和指导双重目标。2. 毕业后生物统计学实习生每年夏天将在哈佛大学居住三个月。这些实习生将参与合作研究项目，并在哈佛大学的学术和临床中心参加三个为期一个月的轮岗，他们将在研究生院申请和选择方面获得直接指导和支持。他们将回到哈佛参加研讨会，并在随后的一个夏天展示他们的研究。3. 来自少数民族本科院校定量领域的教师将参加我们的年度研讨会，并在教师研讨会上与HSPH的教师进行为期两天的密集会议。这些教师将向我们介绍他们的学生，我们将向他们介绍定量公共卫生领域的知识，这样他们就可以向本科生介绍这个令人兴奋的职业选择。我们在哈佛建立了一个广泛的个人网络，他们渴望并致力于提供必要的研究和指导支持，使我们提议的项目成功，并帮助将生物统计学转变为一个丰富多样的职业。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In 1994, the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) established the Summer Program in Quantitative Sciences for minority and underrepresented undergraduates, with the goal of encouraging the future participation of these students in graduate programs in Public Health, Biomedicine, and Biostatistics. This first-in-kind program served as a model for similar programs throughout the country, which have continued and strengthened this very important mission of increasing the diversity in Public Health and Biostatistics. In 2010, the American Mathematical Society recognized Harvard's program with its Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference Award, its annual award for programs that do an "outstanding job of bringing more individuals from underrepresented minority groups into the mathematical sciences ... through replicable methods." The citation for the award states: "The program has made a remarkable contribution to the national effort to produce more minority students pursuing careers in biostatistics and public health." Now, in 2011, we are embarking on the second stage of our pipeline development. We have recognized through our experience that while a single, short term summer program experience can be enormously successful at establishing the first segment in the pipeline, it is not sufficient to increase the minority presence that we need among graduate students, fellows and faculty in Biostatistics. Thus, we propose to reinforce and extend the pipeline that we have initiated with the summer program with the following completely new components to our program: 1. An annual symposium that will be attended by current and past program participants, faculty, fellows, graduate students, and the external advisory committee, and will feature oral presentations and posters by participants at all levels. The symposium will have dual academic and mentoring objectives. 2. Post-Baccalaureate Biostatistics Interns will reside at Harvard for three months each summer. These interns will participate in collaborative research projects and participate in three one-month rotations at academic and clinical centers at Harvard, and they will receive directed mentoring and support for graduate school applications and selection. They will return to Harvard to participate in the symposium and present their research in a subsequent summer. 3. Faculty members from quantitative fields at minority serving undergraduate institutions will attend our annual symposium and spend two days in intensive meetings with HSPH faculty in a faculty workshop. This faculty will teach us about their students, and we will teach them about the field of quantitative Public Health so that they can educate their undergraduate students about this exciting career option. We have developed a broad network of individuals across Harvard who are eager and committed to providing the necessary research and mentoring support to make our proposed programs successful and to help transform Biostatistics into a profession that is rich in diversity. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The overarching goal of this T36 proposal is to increase the presence of underrepresented minority groups in the field of Biostatistics and quantitative Public Health, at all levels, including the graduate student, fellow and faculty levels. To address this, we propose a Summer Program in Quantitative Sciences for underrepresented minority undergraduates, including formal training in Biostatistics, collaborative research, and professional and graduate school mentoring. We have learned that we need to reinforce and extend this pipeline in order for it to have a sustained impact; to this end we propose to have program participants return in subsequent summers for an annual symposium at Harvard, to establish a three month Post-Baccalaureate Biostatistics Intern program, and to invite faculty from minority serving undergraduate institutions to visit each summer and participate in the symposium and intensive meetings with Harvard faculty for mutual exchange of information.