RIO PIEDRAS MARC U*STAR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

描述(由申请者提供)：里约皮德拉斯校区正在为其MARC U*STAR项目的竞争性续签申请资金。过去，该项目成功地帮助人数不足的拉美裔学生攻读研究生课程，近90%的学生攻读了研究型博士学位。这在一定程度上是通过瞄准不那么有优势的高中的学生，招收能力较强的学生，为他们提供增强他们对研究兴趣的经验，最后将他们组织成一个有凝聚力的小组，鼓励自己的成员攻读研究生来实现的。RIO Piedras Marc U*STAR项目建议继续追求以下具体目标：1)增加攻读研究生学位并获得生物医学博士学位的少数族裔本科生数量，2)增加UPR-Rio Piedras本科生数量，这些本科生不仅对成功从事与生物医学相关的研究事业感兴趣，而且非常有能力。这些目标中的第一个包括那些培养低年级和高年级学生研究技能的目标和活动。由于与研究经验相关的活动在未来科学家的发展中是不可替代的组成部分，该项目将继续要求严格的内部经验，包括完成特定项目和本科生论文。外部经验也将是必需的。然而，该计划将寻求改善这一活动和其他活动，以确保学生有更好的机会成为生物医学研究人员。这将包括，更好地利用暑期经验，申请更适合他们需要的研究生课程，以及他们将在研究生工作中使用的更复杂工具的经验。第二个目标涉及应对普遍定期审议--里约热内卢皮德拉斯生物和化学专业有能力从事研究工作的学生人数产生影响的活动。这些活动旨在提高学生的表现，包括：新生辅导、新生暑期数学沉浸和课程改进。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Rio Piedras Campus is requesting funds for the competitive renewal of its MARC U*STAR program. In the past this program has been successful in enabling underrepresented Hispanic students to pursue graduate studies and close to 90% have pursued research doctorates. This, in part, has been accomplished by targeting students from the less advantaged high schools, recruiting the highly capable, providing them with experiences that reinforce their interest in research and finally knitting them into a cohesive group that encourages its own members to pursue graduate studies. The Rio Piedras MARC U*STAR program is proposing to continue to pursue following specific aims: 1) To increase the number of minority undergraduate students who pursue graduate studies leading to doctoral degrees in the biomedical sciences, and 2) To increase the number of UPR-Rio Piedras undergraduates who are not only interested in, but highly capable of successfully pursuing biomedically relevant research careers. The first of these aims includes those objectives and activities which develop research skills in Juniors and Seniors. Since activities associated with a research experience are irreplaceable components in the development of future scientists, the program will continue to require a rigorous intramural experience that involves the completion of a specific project and includes an undergraduate dissertation. External experiences will also be required. However, the program will seek to improve this and other activities in order to assure that students have a better chance of becoming biomedical researchers. This will include, making better use of summer experiences, applying to graduate programs more suited to their needs and experience in the more complex instrumentation they will use in their graduate work. The second aim involves activities that should have an impact on the numbers of UPR-Rio Piedras Biology and Chemistry majors who are capable of pursuing research careers. These activities are directed to improving student performance and include: Freshman Mentoring, Summer Math Immersion for in-coming Freshmen and Curricular Enhancement.