(Collaborative Research) A Collaborative Approach to Work-Based Learning: Addressing the Needs of Community College Biotechology Students and their Research University Mentors

尽管社区大学的技术培训可以让学生为生物技术行业的工作做好准备，但行业和学术界的雇主有时会犹豫是否聘用学士学位以下的学生。成功的实习项目结合了基于工作的学习和本科生的研究经验，可以增加社区学院培训的学生对这些职位的竞争力。旧金山城市学院(CCSF)正在与加州大学旧金山分校(UCSF)职业规划和发展办公室合作解决这一问题。此次合作旨在使CCSF的生物技术实习计划与加州大学旧金山分校的博士级导师培训计划保持一致。CCSF的学生将在加州大学旧金山分校导师的监督下从事研究项目，同时两人都在接受如何建立有效的导师/实习生关系的培训。通过这种方式，该项目将支持加州大学旧金山分校导师和他们的CCSF实习生之间富有成效的关系。这种合作的导师/实习生模式预计将帮助实习生发展技术和就业技能，并帮助导师增强他们培训和管理多样化劳动力的能力。该项目的目标是增加与加州大学旧金山分校训练有素的导师一起工作的CCSF实习生的数量，并提高实习生与导师关系的质量。该项目旨在通过循证、迭代的方法制定课程和项目，以实现这些目标：a)确定CCSF学生及其加州大学旧金山分校导师的需求；b)修改CCSF实习生和加州大学旧金山分校导师培训计划，以满足未解决的需求；以及c)审查联合干预措施，以协调这两个培训课程是否改善实习生和导师的体验。该项目包括一个研究部分，它可以提供关于实践的新知识和理解，从而增加指导研究经验的成功。此外，该项目确定的增强的课程、干预措施和工具可以更广泛地用于发展和加强实习计划、导师的研究生和博士后培训、教师培训和行业专业培训的专业发展，重点是改善留住不同的学生群体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Although technical training at community colleges can prepare students for work in the biotechnology industry, industry and academic employers are sometimes hesitant to hire students with less than bachelor-level degrees. Successful internship programs that integrate work-based learning and undergraduate research experiences can increase the competitiveness of community college-trained students for these positions. The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is collaborating with the Office of Career Planning and Development at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to address this problem. This collaboration aims to align the Biotechnology Internship program at CCSF with the PhD-level Mentor Training program at UCSF. The CCSF students will work on research projects under supervision of UCSF mentors, while both are being trained on how to build effective mentor/intern relationships. In this way, the project will support productive relationships between UCSF mentors and their CCSF interns. This collaborative mentor/intern model is expected to help the interns develop technical and employability skills, and help mentors enhance their ability to train and supervise a diverse workforce. The goals of this project are to increase the number of CCSF interns who work with trained UCSF mentors and to improve the quality of the intern-mentor relationship. The project aims to achieve these goals through an evidence-based, iterative approach to curriculum and program development by: a) identifying the needs of the CCSF students and their UCSF mentors; b) modifying the CCSF Internship and UCSF Mentor Training programs to respond to unaddressed needs; and c) examining whether joint interventions to align both training curricula improves the intern's and mentor's experience. The project includes a research component that can contribute new knowledge about and understanding of practices that increase the success of mentored research experiences. Furthermore, enhanced curricula, interventions, and tools identified by this project can be used more broadly to develop and enhance professional development for internship programs, graduate and postdoctoral training of mentors, faculty training, and industry professional training, with a focus on improved retention of diverse student populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.