Research Opportunities for Undergraduates: Training in Environmental Health Sciences (ROUTES)

 描述（由申请人提供）：“本科生的研究机会：环境健康科学（ROUTES）培训”的目标是增加来自代表性不足的背景从事环境健康研究日益复杂的领域的科学家的人才库。它将通过关注代表性不足的少数民族（URM）本科生来实现这一目标，为他们提供环境健康科学中各种主题的实践研究经验。对环境健康的关注是由这一主题对不成比例地受影响的URM社区的重要性和相关性以及EH研究的复杂性，协作性和跨学科性驱动的。该团队将在环境健康科学领域建立一个多学科的本科研究项目，该项目借鉴了东北大学（NEU）在这一领域的资助研究的强大基础以及我们在健康科学，工程和环境科学领域的环境健康相关项目。该计划将提供环境健康科学的教学，指导和研究专业知识。要做到这一点，将为URM学生开发一个新的创新计划，包括（1）通过在NEU的URM本科推广参与和招聘机会，（2）为URM学生提供为期六个月的全职合作研究经验与研讨会，（3）有针对性的指导和支持服务，以帮助URM学生参与者追求研究生学习和研究生涯，和（4）通过与更大的研究社区的参与，为URM学生的专业发展。ROUTES将建立在现有NEU计划的网络基础上，这些计划在STEM领域拥有招募和支持URM学生的成功历史，以丰富环境健康科学研究的本科生经验。这些教育和培训计划是由一个评估方法，允许持续评估和改进，教师培训URM学生辅导，并招聘额外的URM教师导师的补充。ROUTES将扩大对探索EH研究职业感兴趣的本科URM学生的人数，并在五年内为多达30名学生创造机会，参加有偿实践研究经验，指导和补充活动。通过这些方法，ROUTES将鼓励URM追求EH的研究事业，从而满足国家的关键需求。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of "Research Opportunities for Undergraduates: Training in Environmental Health Science (ROUTES)" is to increase the pool of scientists from underrepresented backgrounds engaged in the increasingly complex field of environmental health research. It will do so through a focus on underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students, providing them with hands-on research experience in diverse topics in Environmental Health Sciences. The focus on environmental health is driven by the importance and relevance of this topic to disproportionately affected URM communities as well as the complex, collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of EH research. This team will establish a multidisciplinary undergraduate research program in environmental health sciences that draws from Northeastern's (NEU) strong base of funded research in this area and our environmental health-related programs in health sciences, engineering, and environmental sciences. The program will provide teaching, mentoring, and research expertise in environmental health sciences. To do so, a new, innovative program for URM students will be developed, including (1) engagement and recruitment opportunities through URM undergraduate outreach at NEU, (2) full- time co-op research experiences for six months for URM students with a symposium, (3) targeted mentoring and support services to assist URM student participants in pursing graduate studies and research careers, and (4) professional development for URM students through engagement with larger research communities. ROUTES will build upon a network of existing NEU programs, which have a successful history of recruiting and supporting URM students in STEM, to enrich undergraduate experiences in environmental health sciences research. These educational and training programs are complemented by an evaluation approach that allows for continuous assessment and improvement, faculty training in URM student mentoring, and recruitment of additional URM faculty mentors. ROUTES will enlarge the pool of undergraduate URM students that are interested in exploring EH research careers and create opportunities for up to 30 students over five years to participate in paid hands-on research experiences, mentoring, and complementary activities. Through these methods, ROUTES will encourage URMs to pursue research careers in EH, thus addressing a critical national need.