UAB PREP Scholars Program

描述（由申请人提供）：阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校（UAB）是一所综合性研究型大学和医学综合体，拥有1.92亿美元的美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究。UAB致力于培养来自不同背景的本科生和研究生，包括代表性不足的少数民族和弱势背景的学生。UAB已经建立并支持了几个项目来帮助这些学生实现他们的教育和职业目标。UAB目前缺乏的是为那些在本科生涯后期决定攻读博士学位的潜在研究生提供机会的手段。这些学生可能已经获得了学士学位，但没有进入顶级生物医学研究生课程的资格证书，在这些课程中，先前的研究经验和高标准化考试成绩是入学的基本标准。我们已经确定了几个潜在的招生对象：1)申请我们的生物医学博士课程，但由于GRE成绩低或没有研究经验而未被录取的少数民族学生（每年约30人）2)参加STEM学科项目的阿拉巴马州本科生(阿拉巴马州路易斯斯托克斯少数民族参与学生联盟；3)阿拉巴马州各院校化学和生物专业的毕业生。我们提出的预科课程将为那些需要加强进入博士教育的学生提供机会。我们的总体目标是每年招收10名学生，并为他们提供在美国国立卫生研究院资助的导师的实验室中进行高质量研究的经验和学术丰富的机会，使他们具备进入美国国立卫生研究院资助的顶级机构的生物医学研究生课程的竞争力。学生将与导师一起开发一个要求很高的研究项目，该项目将至少发表一篇论文；每个学生80%或更多的时间将用于完成这个研究项目。还将为每个学生设计个人发展计划（IDP），以解决可能影响未来研究生成就的任何学术弱点。国内发展规划还将提供加强写作和数量技能、提供职业信息、发展演讲技能、讨论研究伦理以及在科学会议上与同行建立联系的活动。学生在实现其国内发展计划目标方面的进展将按季度进行监测。我们期望在UAB建立预科学者项目将增加少数民族申请人的数量，他们为进入美国顶尖的博士项目做好了充分的准备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a comprehensive research university and medical complex with $192 million of NIH-funded research. UAB has a strong commitment to training undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. UAB has established and supported several programs to help these students meet their educational and career goals. What UAB currently lacks is a means to provide opportunity to potential graduate students who make a decision to pursue doctoral education late in their undergraduate career. These students may have already attained their baccalaureate degrees, but do not have the credentials for entry into top biomedical graduate programs where prior research experience and high standardized test scores are essential criteria for admittance. We have identified several potential pools from which to recruit such students: 1) Minority students who apply to one of our biomedical doctoral programs, but who are not offered admission due to low GRE scores or no research experience (about 30 per year) 2) Alabama undergraduate students who participate in programs aimed at STEM disciplines (Alabama Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation students; 700-800 per year) 3) Graduates in Chemistry and Biology from institutions throughout Alabama. Our proposed PREP program will provide opportunities to those students who need to strengthen their credentials for entry into doctoral education. Our overall goal is to recruit 10 students per year and to provide them a high quality research experience in the laboratories of NIH-funded mentors and academic enrichment opportunities to equip them to be competitive for entry into biomedical graduate programs at top NIH-funded institutions. The students will work with mentors to develop a demanding research project that will lead to at least one publication; 80% or more of each student's time will be devoted to completing this research project. An individual development plan (IDP) will also be designed for each student, to address any academic weaknesses that might affect success in future graduate attainment. The IDP will also provide activities to strengthen writing and quantitative skills, provide career information, develop presentation skills, discuss research ethics, and network with peers at scientific meetings. Student progress toward meeting the goals of their IDP will be monitored quarterly. We expect that establishing a PREP Scholars program at UAB will increase the number of minority applicants who are well prepared for entry into top doctoral programs across the US. To build a diverse work force, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will identify and prepare 10 students from groups underrepresented in biomedical research for a series of training and academic experiences to prepare them for entry into top doctoral graduate programs in the U.S. These students who will already have earned a baccalaureate degree will be paired with NIH-funded faculty members at UAB who will mentor these trainees and provide high quality research experiences in biomedical sciences. Individual development plans will be tailored to each student's needs, to identify specific activities to prepare them for success in doctoral study, including academic enrichment, scientific writing, quantitative skills development, presentation skills, ethics in research, career mentoring, and quarterly assessment of progress.