Blazing to Biomedical Careers

描述(由申请人提供)：生物医学研究在美国迅速发展；然而，少数族裔在这一劳动力中的代表性仍然不足。虽然TIMSS和其他测试显示，与大多数其他国家的学生相比，美国学生的学业准备能力有了很大提高，但少数民族学生并没有表现出这样的学业进步。最终的结果是，少数族裔和服务不足的学生仍然相对缺乏进入生物医学和行为科学等高科技职业的准备。结果是，占总人口约29%的少数族裔仅占生物医学和行为科学博士学位的7%左右，仅持有R01生物医学和行为研究拨款的约4%。许多服务不足的学生缺乏早期参与度，即使当他们对生物医学研究职业产生兴趣时，他们也缺乏机会发展技能和内容知识，进入四年制学士学位课程，从而进入生物医学或行为研究职业生涯。Braning to Biomedical Careers(BBC)将联合两所社区学院和阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校，为即将前往社区大学的高中毕业生提供实习机会，让他们在进入社区大学之前了解生物医学和行为研究职业的机会和前景。第二次实习将在他们在社区学院二年级的前一个夏天进行。该计划还将在他们在社区大学的两年时间里提供生物医学研究方面的高级课程，从而为学生在UAB接受严格的高级课程做好准备。学生的暑期研究和两个学年的研究性学习机会将获得报酬。在UAB(大三)的第一年，那些在学术生物医学课程中表现出色的学生将被招募为BBC学生的导师，这些学生仍在社区大学的头两年。其他代表不足的初级和高级本科生以及一些研究生也将被同样招募，担任UAB GENEius实验室的高中生辅导员， 从而成为潜在的BBC新群体的榜样。最后，该计划将为BBC学生提供咨询和教育计划，这些学生意识到自己不是注定要成为PI/PD身份的人，但他们希望在生物医学研究领域找到职业。BBC的更广泛影响将是在生物医学研究中创造一支新的代表不足的个人队伍。智力上的好处将是测试方法，让未被充分代表的学生参与并为生物医学和行为研究的职业生涯做好准备。这一点尤其重要，因为这两所社区学院的学生人数非常不同，因此评估将阐明哪些方法对哪些人群最有效。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biomedical research is expanding rapidly in the US; however, minorities continue to be underrepresented in this workforce. While the TIMSS and other tests show that US students are greatly improving their academic preparedness compared to students from most other nations, minority students have not shown such academic gains. The net result is that minority and underserved students remain relatively poorly prepared to enter high technology careers such as biomedical and behavioral sciences. The result is that minorities who constitute about 29% of the total population, represent only about 7% of PhD degrees in biomedical and behavioral science and hold only about 4% of R01 biomedical and behavioral research grants. Many underserved students lack early engagement, and even when they become interested in biomedical research careers, they lack the opportunities to develop skills and content knowledge to move into 4-year baccalaureate programs leading to biomedical or behavioral research careers. Blazing to Biomedical Careers (BBC) will join the forces of two community colleges and the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide students graduating from high school who are headed to community colleges with internships that will introduce them to the opportunities and promises of biomedical and behavioral research careers before entering their community college. A second internship will occur the summer before their 2nd year at the community college. The program will also offer advanced coursework in biomedical research during their two years in community college, thus preparing the students for the rigors of advanced coursework at UAB. The students will be paid for their summer research and for research learning opportunities during the two school years. Once in their first year at UAB (juniors), those students who are performing well in their academic biomedical curriculum will be recruited to serve as mentors to BBC students still in their first two years at community college. Other underrepresented junior and senior undergraduates and some graduate students will be similarly recruited to serve as facilitators for high school students at UAB's GENEius lab, thus becoming role models for potential new BBC cohorts. Finally, the program will provide counseling and an educational program for BBC students who realize they are not destined for PI/PD status, but who want careers in the biomedical research field. The Broader impact of BBC will be to create a new cadre of underrepresented individuals in biomedical research. The Intellectual merit will be to test methods to engage and prepare underrepresented students for careers in biomedical and behavioral research. This will be especially important, in that the two community colleges are very different in their student population and thus the assessment will shed light on what methods work best for which populations.