Advancing aging research through development of minority gerontologists

描述（由申请人提供）：在霍华德大学（HU阿达尔）建立推进老龄化研究（阿达尔）计划的目标是在本科阶段早期确定一组来自MSTEM学科的少数民族学生，然后通过广泛的指导和培训，为他们成功竞争研究生学习和其他职业生涯做好准备。通过让他们在职业生涯的早期熟悉老龄化研究，这批少数民族研究人员可以对建立老年医学和老年学的职业生涯产生兴趣。开发HUADAR项目的费用是相当合理的，因为世纪以来，霍华德大学一直在培养代表性不足的少数民族学生。大约97%的霍华德的学员是非洲裔美国人和国家科学基金会（NSF）最近的排名把霍华德大学作为学士学位获得者谁随后获得科学和工程博士学位全国顶级研究型大学的顶级生产商。此外，通过积极的招聘工作，霍华德大学成功地招募了几名MSTEM领域的教师，他们正在积极研究衰老和年龄相关疾病的各个方面。因此，霍华德大学有理想的环境，以确定有才华的少数民族科学家的干部早期在他们的本科阶段，它有必要的资源，通过指导为他们提供知识和研究技能的基础，使这些学生将在老年学的跨学科领域脱颖而出。HUADAR计划的受训人员组成将包括100%代表性不足的少数民族。大约有7,000名本科生在霍华德就读于29个本科部门和课程，大约97%的入学者是非洲裔美国人，67%是女性。此外，20%（或1，400）的专业是生物，化学，物理，数学，工程和联合健康，超过80%的人宣布医学为他们的职业目标。我们计划每年从MSTEM学科招收五名学生，在大一结束时尽早选择他们，采用的招聘策略包括：a）确定表现出色的学生， 介绍性课程，B）参加荣誉课程的学生，c）教职员工的推荐，以及d）学生对广告，公告和口头陈述的回应。拟议的培训是为HUADAR学员设计的综合研究教育计划，包括以下内容：（1）开发两门关于衰老的新课程，（2）在大二和大三期间在霍华德的各个实验室接触衰老研究，（3）参加著名老年学家的研究研讨会，（4）在霍华德大学以外的领先老龄化研究机构（如NIA巴尔的摩，UT健康科学中心，约翰霍普金斯，乔治敦大学医学中心）进行夏季研究学徒的机会，马里兰州大学和华盛顿大学，（5）在高年级写荣誉论文/高级论文，（6）提供一对一的指导，以建立一个成功的职业道路。因此，从大二到大四，我们有一个精心设计的计划，教育HUADAR学员在老龄化研究的不同方面，包括老龄化的社会方面。所有的学生和工作人员将被要求参与研究的负责任的行为指令。HUADAR的评估计划将包括课程评估，学生表现，教师效能调查，夏季研究经验调查，成功完成荣誉论文/高级论文。HUADAR计划的长期目标是通过科学培训和教育经验为少数民族学生培养未来的研究人员，我们将鼓励他们寻求老龄化研究作为职业目标。因此，我们将接受NIA阿达尔倡议的目标，以“填补从本科到研究生教育过渡的管道中的空白，因为它涉及医学，科学，技术，工程和数学，以实现NIA健康差距战略计划的目标”。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of establishing the Advancing Diversity in Aging Research (ADAR) program at Howard University (HUADAR) is to identify a group of bright minority students from MSTEM disciplines early during their undergraduate years and then through extensive mentoring and training prepare them to successfully compete for graduate studies and other professional careers. By making them familiar with aging research early in their career, this cadre of minority researchers could be made squarely interested about building a career on geriatrics and gerontology. The Rationales for developing an HUADAR program is quite justifiable, for more than a century Howard University is engaged in training underrepresented minority students. About 97% of Howard's mentees are African Americans and National Science Foundation's (NSF) recent ranking put Howard University as the top producer of bachelor's degree recipients who subsequently earned science and engineering doctoral degrees nationally from top-tier research universities. Moreover, with an aggressive recruitment effort, Howard University successfully recruited several faculty members in MSTEM areas who are maintaining an active research programs on various aspects of aging and age related disorders. Therefore, Howard University has the ideal environment to identify a cadre of talented minority scientists early during their undergraduate years and it has the required resources to provide them with a foundation of knowledge and research skills through mentoring so that these students will excel in the interdisciplinary field of gerontology. Trainee compositio for HUADAR program will include 100% underrepresented minorities. Approximately 7,000 undergraduate students enroll at Howard in 29 undergraduate departments and programs, approximately 97% of enrollees are African American and 67% are women. Furthermore, 20% (or 1,400) major in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering and Allied Health with greater than 80% declaring medicine as their career goal. We plan to recruit five students from MSTEM disciplines each year by selecting them early at the end of their freshman year using a recruitment strategy which includes: a) identification of strong performing students in the introductory courses, b) students enrolled in the Honors Program, c) recommendations by faculty members, and d) students responding to advertisements, announcements, and oral presentations. Proposed training is a comprehensive research education plan designed for HUADAR trainees which consists of following components: (1) develop two new courses on aging, (2) exposure to aging research in various laboratories at Howard during sophomore and junior years, (3) attending research seminars by prominent gerontologists, (4) a summer research apprenticeship opportunity outside Howard University in leading research institutes on aging like NIA Baltimore, UT Health Sciences Center, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown University Medical Centers, University of Maryland and University of Washington, (5) writing a honors thesis/senior thesis during senior year, (6) provide one on one mentoring to build a successful career path. Thus, from their sophomore year up to the senior year we have a carefully laid out plans to educate the HUADAR trainees on different aspects of aging research including the social aspects of aging. All students and personnel will be required to participate in instruction on the Responsible Conduct of Research. Evaluation plan for HUADAR will consist of course evaluations, student performances, faculty efficacy surveys, summer research experience surveys, successful completion of an honors thesis/senior thesis. The long-term goal of HUADAR program is to prepare minority students as future researchers through scientific training and educational experiences and we will encourage them to seek aging research as a career goal. Thus we will embrace the goal of NIA ADAR initiative to "fill a gap in the pipeline transitioning from undergraduate to graduate education in aging as it relates to medicine, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to fulfill the objectives of the NIA Health Disparities Strategic Plan".