REU Site: Social Disparities in Health, Health Behavior, and Access to Care

该项目由本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划支持，该计划是nsf范围内的计划，尽管每个理事会管理自己的REU站点竞赛。本项目支持大学生积极参与科研，引导大学生从事科学研究，鼓励大学生继续投身国家的科学研究和发展事业。REU项目让学生以有意义的方式参与正在进行的研究项目或专门为此目的设计的研究项目。REU计划是NSF发展多样化、具有国际竞争力和全球参与的科学和工程劳动力的目标的主要贡献者。社会、行为和经济（SBE）科学理事会向新不伦瑞克罗格斯大学颁发了这一REU网站赠款，旨在通过提高他们的人力、社会和文化资本，为本科生开展关于健康方面的社会经济和行为差异的研究做好准备。根据社会经济地位、种族、性别和其他人口和文化因素缩小健康方面的差距是《2020年健康人口》的一项主要目标，该目标用于确定国家卫生倡议的优先事项。该项目使实习生能够将自己的观点融入跨学科的研究团队，这样他们就可以帮助推进有关健康差异的社会经济和行为原因和后果的知识。这个REU网站每年招收8名本科生，目标是来自第一代，低收入和种族/民族的学生，这些学生在研究生涯中一直没有得到充分的代表。在夏季，实习生接受社会科学研究方法、统计、写作讲习班和关于健康差异的讲座等方面的广泛培训，为与教师导师一起开展的个人研究项目奠定基础。实习生完成完整的演绎研究过程，并以研究论文、海报和演讲的形式展示他们的项目。在学年期间，他们继续与导师一起工作，修改他们的论文以提交给会议或期刊，并作为导师研究团队的成员参与。这些主任教授关于选择研究生项目、写研究生申请论文和请求推荐信的建议研讨会。(1)该培训计划通过提供他们对健康状况不佳的社区的社会经济和文化属性的见解，使本科生在解决健康差异的关键问题方面填补了一个关键的空缺。(2)该项目扩大了社会和行为科学研究人员的种族/民族、性别和社会经济构成，并使其多样化，以更紧密地反映美国整体人口的构成。(3)通过在课堂、研讨会和导师的合作研究团队中促进不同观点的讨论，该项目改善了社会和行为科学领域所有学生和研究人员的学习。

This project is supported under the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program, which is an NSF-wide program although each Directorate administers its own REU Site competition. This program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in an effort to introduce them to scientific research so as to encourage their continued engagement in the nation's scientific research and development enterprise. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects designed especially for the purpose. The REU program is a major contributor to the NSF's goal of developing a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally-engaged science and engineering workforce. The Social, Behavioral and Economic (SBE) sciences Directorate awarded this REU Site grant to Rutgers University New Brunswick which aims to prepare undergraduate students to conduct research on socioeconomic and behavioral disparities in health by enhancing their human, social, and cultural capital. Reducing disparities in health according to socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other demographic and cultural factors is a major objective of Healthy People 2020, which is used to set national priorities for health initiatives. The program prepares interns to integrate their perspectives into interdisciplinary research teams, so they can help advance knowledge about socioeconomic and behavioral causes and consequences of health disparities.This REU site recruits 8 undergraduate students per year targeting students from first-generation, low-income, and racial/ethnic groups that have historically been underrepresented in research careers. During the summer, interns receive extensive training in social science research methods, statistics, writing workshops, and lectures on health disparities to provide the foundation for individual research projects undertaken with faculty mentors. Interns complete the full deductive research process, and present their projects as research papers, posters, and speeches. During the academic year, they continue working with a mentor, revising their paper for submission to a conference or journal, and participating as a member of the mentor's research team. The Directors teach advising workshops on selecting graduate programs, writing graduate school application essays, and requesting letters of recommendation. (1) The training program prepares undergraduates to fill a crucial niche in addressing critical issues in health disparities by providing their insights into socioeconomic and cultural attributes of communities that disproportionately experience poor health. (2) The program expands and diversifies the racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic composition of the social and behavioral science research workforce to more closely mirror the composition of the overall US population. (3) The program improves learning for all students and researchers in social and behavioral science fields by facilitating discussion of diverse points of view in classes, seminars, and in their mentors' collaborative research teams.