Environmental Health Sciences: Transformational Research Undergraduate Experience (E-H-TRUE)

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PROJECT ABSTRACT Environmental Health: Transformative Research Undergraduate Experiences (E-H-TRUE) research education program at the University of Arizona (UA) seeks to recruit, educate and retain 5 undergraduate students every year who are underrepresented in environmental health sciences over five-year period. UA has a long record of accomplishment to train and retain under-representative students: more than 40% new freshman students from under-representative groups, raking #1 in PhDs earned by Naïve American students and #8 in the number of PhDs earned by Hispanic/Latino students. UA has received status as an American Indian/Alaska Native and a Hispanic Serving Institution. In E-H-TRUE, we bring together two preeminent programs: the UA Center for Toxicology and the UA Undergraduate Research Program (UBRP) to provide the top-notch research training in environmental health sciences. On the research side, the UA Center for Toxicology, one of leading toxicology research and training centers in the world, is home to the NIEHS-funded Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) and the UA Superfund Research Program. On the undergraduate education side, UBRP has served as a model for high-quality undergraduate research training for more than 30 years. Through established networks by UBRP, we will initiate early contact with freshman/sophomore undergraduates to identify talented undergraduate candidates from under-representative groups who are interested in environmental health science research. The well-designed educational component of E-H-TRUE will include a specifically designed course work in environmental health sciences to expose students to toxicology, immunology, epidemiology and government regulation. Program participants will receive hand-on training in research laboratories. Students will work with their mentors and laboratory collaborators to learn how to review literature, generate hypothesis, design step-by-step experimentation to test hypothesis, document results, and deliver presentable data by due dates. The program will emphasize collaboration and near- peer mentoring by capitalizing on the recently renewed NIEHS T32 training program (continuously funded for 40 years). The E-H-TRUE program will also facilitate community outreach activities in environmental health science through the established outreach core in SWEHSC. Finally, we have implemented a rigorous evaluation plan to measure the success and impact of the program. The main goal of the program is to provide students with research experiences and encourage them pursuing Ph.D. or professional degrees to be active in environmental science research.