Academic Year Health, Air Pollution, and Population Initiative in Education and Science Training (AY HAPPIEST)

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PROJECT SUMMARY The overall goal of the parent project is to train University of Utah (UOU) undergraduate students from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds in air pollution-related health research through a faculty-mentored summer program called Health, Air Pollution and Population Initiative in Education and Science Training (HAPPIEST). This administrative supplement will extend HAPPIEST research opportunities to the academic year for selected participants. Since exposure to air pollution is magnified in racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States, it is imperative to engage members of these communities—especially college students with STEM interests—in addressing the complex problems caused by poor air quality and environmental inequity. With this administrative supplement, we will achieve the following aims, which are within the original scope of the peer-reviewed and approved project: Aim 1. Extend the summer HAPPIEST mentoring “community of practice” model to the academic year to enrich student training and deepen interdisciplinary collaboration on team-based environmental health research. Aim 2. Link the evaluation of academic year HAPPIEST to summer HAPPIEST to improve the quality and effectiveness of all HAPPIEST programming, as well as inform future undergraduate research training programs that aim to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in NIEHS- related research. In the parent award, the “community of practice” every summer includes four research teams, each with two undergraduate students, one graduate student training coordinator, and at least one faculty mentor. The administrative supplement will fund one academic year (AY) HAPPIEST research team, comprised to two summer 2022 HAPPIEST undergraduates, a summer 2021 HAPPIEST graduate student training coordinator, and three faculty mentors involved with HAPPIEST in summers 2021 and 2022. The interdisciplinary team will work on a research project investigating transgenerational effects of industrial air pollution on intellectual disability. Using an asset-oriented approach designed to build on student strengths, AY HAPPIEST activities will prepare students for placement into competitive graduate programs in the environmental health sciences. The project is of great