Improving Montana Community Health Through Graduate Education

描述（由申请人提供）：通过研究生教育改善蒙大拿州社区健康的目标是通过支持代表性不足的少数民族（URM）在生物医学和行为科学方面的研究生，他们与服务不足的蒙大拿州社区有很强的联系，从而提高社区的能力，以减少我们州的健康差距。我们的假设是，当URM学生有机会在其家乡社区进行基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR）时，他们将更有可能申请并完成与健康相关的研究生课程。因此，研究生学习对他们和他们的家庭来说是有意义的，并被视为通往职业生涯的道路，他们可以为改善人民的健康而努力。在历史上人们一直是研究的受害者而不是受益者的社区，确保研究生工作对当地有意义和相关性至关重要。这种模式已经在蒙大拿州奏效（Cummins et. al. 2010），并已被全国公认为本科生物学教育的有效创新（http://visionandchange.org/finalreport）。蒙大拿州立大学具有独特的优势，可以为蒙大拿州大学的研究生提供这一机会，因为目前美国国立卫生研究院支持的社区参与式健康差异研究项目在蒙大拿州的所有七个部落学院开展，这些项目是与大学教员合作进行的。我们的具体目标是：(1)在全州范围内积极和亲自招募潜在的学者，在整个申请过程中提供指导；(2)通过提供学习社区参与性研究的机会，并通过将他们与现有的部落学院-大学网络和适当的密歇根州立大学顾问联系起来，帮助学者设想和规划如何利用他们的研究生课程来解决健康差距或改善他们家乡社区的健康状况；(3)为研究生教育的重点领域提供财政援助和学术支持，这些领域是密歇根州立大学现有资源无法解决的；(4)为学者提供专业发展机会，帮助他们在学术界和家庭社区取得成功；(5)探索将CBPR选项纳入研究生研究是否会增加未被充分代表的少数民族学生的研究生教育的招生，保留和满意度，从而也提高他们的社区解决当地卫生问题的能力，并传播我们所学到的知识。为了实现这些具体目标，我们的目标是：(1)将研究生学位与蒙大拿州医疗保健人力需求联系起来；(2)开发和提供研究方法I和II课程顺序；(3)为统计学401或其他顶级看门人课程提供导师指导的学习小组；(4)将学生与校园内现有的支持服务联系起来，包括研究生写作导师、美国印第安人研究机会（AIRO）研究中心和计算机实验室、相关的学生支持计划和学生组织；(5)为优等生提供额外津贴，并协助所有项目参与者申请研究生院的其他资助来源；(6)提供具有竞争力的专业补助金管理培训；(7)通过演讲培训、会议旅行和领导力发展培训，支持项目参与者更广泛的专业发展；(8)传播，包括在项目网站上录制和发布对乌拉尔大学研究生和乌拉尔大学科学家榜样的采访，以及支持学生的研究报告。一个代表社区研究合作伙伴、学生参与者、教师研究人员和密歇根州立大学合作项目的咨询委员会将成立，并每年召开两次会议。评估将包括基线、形成性和总结性组成部分，并将在项目参与者及其研究导师、社区研究合作伙伴和咨询委员会成员的投入下进行，并得到外部评估人员的一些协助。传播将通过我们的网站，亲自在校园里，在项目参与者的家庭社区，区域和全国。据我们所知，这是第一次大学和部落学院合作提议在任何学科提供以社区为基础的毕业生机会，因此，传播经验教训对URM的学生和全国社区至关重要和有用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of Improving Montana Community Health through Graduate Education is to increase community capacity to reduce health disparities in our state, by supporting under-represented minority (URM) graduate students in biomedical and behavioral sciences, who have strong ties to underserved Montana communities. Our hypothesis is that URM students will be more likely to apply to and complete health-related graduate programs when they have the opportunity to conduct community-based participatory research (CBPR) on health issues in their home communities. Graduate study can therefore be meaningful to them and their families, and be seen as leading to a career in which they can work to improve the health of their people. In communities where people have historically been the victims rather than the beneficiaries of research, ensuring that graduate work is locally meaningful and relevant, is vital. This model is already working in Montana (Cummins et. al. 2010), and has been nationally recognized as an effective innovation in undergraduate biology education (http://visionandchange.org/finalreport). Montana State University is uniquely positioned to offer this opportunity to URM graduate students, due to the current network of NIH supported community-based participatory health disparities research projects at all of Montana's seven tribal colleges, being conducted in collaboration with University faculty partners. Our specific aims are to (1) Actively and personally recruit potential scholars statewide, providing mentorship throughout the application process; (2) Help scholars envision and plan how they can use their graduate programs to address health disparities or improve health in their home communities, by providing opportunities to learn about community-based participatory research, and by connecting them with existing tribal college-university networks and appropriate MSU advisors; (3) Provide scholars with financial assistance and academic support for key areas of their graduate education not being addressed by existing MSU resources; (4) Provide scholars with professional development opportunities that will help them succeed both in the academic world and in their home communities; (5) Explore whether integrating a CBPR option into graduate research will increase underrepresented minority students' recruitment into, retention in and satisfaction with graduate education, thereby also increasing their community's capacity to address local health issues, and disseminate what we learn. To attain these specific aims, our objectives are to: (1) Connect graduate degrees with Montana Healthcare Workforce needs; (2) Develop and offer a Research Methods I and II course sequence; (3) Provide a tutor-led study group for Statistics 401, or other top gatekeeper courses; (4) Connect students to existing support services campus wide, including the graduate writing tutor, the American Indian Research Opportunities (AIRO) study center and computer lab, relevant student support programs and student organizations; (5) Provide a supplementary stipend for the top students, and assist all program participants with applying for other sources of graduate school funding; (6) Provide competitively available professional grants management training; (7) Support the broader professional development of program participants through presentation training, conference travel and leadership development training and (8) Dissemination, including recording and posting interviews with URM graduate student and URM scientist role models on project website as well as supporting student presentations of their research. An Advisory Committee representing community research partners, student participants, faculty researchers, and collaborating MSU programs will be established and meet biannually. The evaluation will include baseline, formative and summative components, and will be conducted with input from program participants and their research mentors, community research partners and Advisory Board members, with some assistance from an external evaluator. Dissemination will be via our website, in person on campus, in program participants' home communities, regionally and nationally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a university-tribal college collaboration has proposed to offer community-based graduate opportunities in any discipline, and therefore dissemination of lessons learned will be vital and useful to URM students and communities nationwide.