Initiative for Maximizing Student Development

描述（由申请人提供）：本IMSD提案的目标是增加研究生培训的学生人数，他们为生物医学研究奋进的多样性做出贡献，并促进他们成功完成博士学位。我们的重点是学生谁拥有非常强的推荐信在他们的研究人才方面，但谁因为较弱的分数（GPA，GRE）可能不会获得录取到一个强大的生物医学研究生课程。我们描述了一个广泛的招聘方法和严格的录取策略。学生们在整个课程中得到广泛的指导，使他们能够在相对较短的时间内充分发挥潜力。他们在第一个夏天参加广泛而全面的教学课程，沿着旨在让他们接触尖端技术的实验室课程。这样做的好处是，一旦这些学生开始轮换，他们就具有很强的竞争力。学生们受到非常密切的指导。这包括每周与项目教师会面，进行辅导和建议。此外，他们充分参与我们为所有一年级生物医学研究生举办的所有辅导活动。这包括每周一次的IMPACT会议，其中一小群学生与一名教师会面，讨论与研究生教育有关的任何和所有问题，以及每周一次的FOCUS会议，其中一小群学生与一名教师会面，分析和讨论最近发表的一篇文献。这里的目标是完全舒适地从文献中获得信息，而不是从教科书中。为了提高口头陈述和批判性思维能力，学生每年春天参加IMSD期刊俱乐部。最后，从长远来看，最重要的是，IMSD的学生在选择论文研究实验室时，会轮流通过教师实验室。我们提供一个基于性能的程序，使学生退出IMSD程序后一年或两年的时间，这取决于个人的进步。到目前为止，我们所有的学生都在良好的信誉和进展顺利，除了一个严重的疾病的后果。 公共卫生相关性：该计划致力于实现一个重要的社会目标，即增加进入研究生院进行生物医学科学研究的UR个人数量。我们建议通过广泛的，创造性的和精心指导的一步一步的研究和培训过程来做到这一点。最终目标是增加生物医学劳动力中这些人的数量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this IMSD Proposal is to increase the number of students in graduate training who contribute to diversity in the biomedical research endeavor and promote their successful completion of the PhD degree. Our focus is upon students who have very strong letters of recommendation in terms of their research talents, but who because of weaker scores (GPA, GRE) might not gain admission into a strong biomedical graduate program. We describe a broad recruiting approach and a rigorous admission strategy. The students are extensively mentored throughout their time in the program to enable them to reach their full potential in a relatively short time period. They take an extensive and thorough didactic course in their first summer, along with a lab course designed to expose them to cutting edge technologies. This has the advantage of making these students highly competitive once they begin their rotations. The students are mentored very closely. This includes meetings with the program faculty for tutoring and advising on a weekly basis. In addition they participate fully in all of our mentoring activities for all first year biomedical graduate students. This includes a weekly IMPACT session wherein small groups of students meet with a faculty member to discuss any and all issues pertaining to graduate education, as well as a weekly FOCUS session wherein a small group of students meet with a faculty member to analyze and discuss a recent paper from the literature. Here the goal is to become entirely comfortable with gaining information from the literature rather than from a textbook. To enhance oral presentation as well as critical thinking skills, students participate in the IMSD journal club each spring. Finally, and in the long run most important, the IMSD students rotate through faculty laboratories as they choose the lab for their thesis research. We provide a performance-based program so that students exit the IMSD program after a one or two year period, depending on individual progress. So far all of our students are in good standing and progressing well, with one exception as a consequence of a serious illness. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This program is dedicated towards an important societal goal, namely increasing the number of UR individuals who enter graduate school to do research in Biomedical Science. We propose to do this by an extensive, creative and carefully mentored step by step process of research and training. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of these individuals in the Biomedical Workforce.