Mentoring for Success: Developing Fundamental Skills for Biomedical Research

描述（由申请人提供）：西北大学IMSD的使命是领导机构努力增加生物医学研究界的多样性。IMSD的长期目标是：1。增加西北大学五个生物医学博士项目中代表性不足的少数民族（URM）和弱势群体学生的数量，扩大用于识别具有博士和研究事业成功才能的学生的选拔标准；2. 继续完善计划活动和干预措施，以促进生物医学博士生的成功，特别是那些来自非典型或弱势背景的博士生。通过实证研究，我们之前已经确定了预测学生可能坚持研究训练的特征。通过对个别学生和成功模式的仔细研究，我们已经确定了其他几个标准，这些标准似乎可以预测“非典型”学生的博士培养成功。非典型学生通常来自教育优势较少的背景，社会经济地位较低，家庭或当地社区对成绩和大学出勤率的期望较低。这些学生的学术和生活经历会降低他们被博士课程录取的机会。虽然不完全符合URM的地位，但URM学生中有较高比例属于这种非典型类别。我们把重点放在这群学生身上，因为我们相信，随着多样性的增加，这批潜在的博士人才需要比过去得到更大程度的挖掘。西北大学IMSD将继续加强博士培养的整体多样性努力，同时测试使用扩展标准选择的非典型学生可以成为成功科学家的假设。为了实现我们的项目目标并培养传统和非典型学生的技能，我们为刚开始攻读博士学位的学生精心设计了为期两年的专业发展课程，重点是：1)所有学生在研究生院的头两年经历的主要专业和个人转变；2)培养有效的口头沟通技巧；3)从构建研究计划的角度掌握科学写作。项目活动的设计利用了小组和同伴指导方法的优势，以补充学生从个人研究导师那里获得的知识。此外，该项目还创建了一个社会支持网络，研究和我们自己的经验都表明，这对留住URM学生至关重要。五个参与博士项目的任何学生都可以通过参与IMSD所在的生物科学（CLIMB）项目的协作学习和综合指导来利用项目活动。除了在西北大学实施和测试IMSD学生选择和发展战略外，一旦这些战略得到充分完善，将被描述并提供给类似的博士项目，以供潜在的应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mission of the Northwestern University IMSD is to lead institutional efforts to increase the diversity of the biomedical research community. The long term goals of the IMSD are to: 1. Increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) and disadvantaged students in the five Northwestern University biomedical sciences PhD programs by expanding the selection criteria being used to identify students with talents indicative of success in the PhD and research careers; 2. Continue refining programmatic activities and interventions to promote success of biomedical PhD students, especially those from atypical or disadvantaged backgrounds. Through empirical research, we have previously identified characteristics that predict students likely to persist into research training. By careful study of individual students and patterns of success, we have identified several other criteria that appear to predict success in PhD training of 'atypical' students. Atypical students usually come from backgrounds with fewer educational advantages, lower socioeconomic status, and lower family or local community expectations of achievement and college attendance. Academic and life experiences of these students can decrease their chances of acceptance into PhD programs. Although not exclusively aligning with URM status, a higher fraction of URM students fall into this atypical category. We are focusing on this group of students because we believe increased diversity will require that this pool of potential PhDs be tapped to a greater degree than it has been in the past. The Northwestern University IMSD will continue enhancing overall diversity efforts in PhD training while testing the hypothesis that atypical students selected using expanded criteria can become successful scientists. To achieve our program goals and develop the skills of traditional and atypical students, a two year professional development sequence has been carefully designed for beginning PhD students that focuses on: 1) the major professional and personal transitions all students experience in the first two years of graduate school; 2) development of effective oral communication skills; 3) mastery of scientific writing from the context of constructing research proposals. The design of the program activities takes advantage of the strengths of group and peer mentoring approaches to complement what students get from individual research mentors. In addition, the program creates a social support network, which both research and our own experience suggest is critical to retention of URM students. Any student in the five participating PhD programs can take advantage of program activities by participation in the Collaborative Learning and Integrated Mentoring in the Biosciences (CLIMB) program within which the IMSD is situated. In addition to implementing and testing the IMSD student selection and development strategies at Northwestern, once they have been fully refined they will be described and made available to similar PhD programs for potential application. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: It is critically important that the talents of the broadest array of the American population be engaged in the discovery of new biomedical knowledge, and the application of both new and current knowledge to solving medical problems. The Northwestern University IMSD program will make significant gains in our ability to identify individuals from underrepresented groups with the talents to make important contributions to biomedical research. By testing new selection and training paradigms, we will open the way for participation in biomedical research by individuals who otherwise are likely to be excluded and whose valuable contributions might never be achieved.