UTSA Maximizing Access to Research Careers Research Training Program - Admin Supplement

University Of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio TX

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) requests NIH/NIGMS support to continue its successful MARC U*STAR Training Program. We presently have 19 former trainees in some of top doctoral programs and 8 will enter in fall 2015, and we have a five-year 54% doctoral matriculation rate for trainees who complete MARC, with low attrition. Several activities accomplished on the active grant have been institutionalized and MARC has extended research access and academic success via several mechanisms throughout the university. The long-term goals of the UTSA MARC program are to provide exceptional training in research, professional development training, academic support and enhancement, and broadly impact the UTSA community to promote student success and doctoral program matriculation. The long term outcome of these goals is to increase the number of underrepresented individuals at the highest levels of the nation?s scientific and engineering biomedical workforce. The Specific Aims of the current proposal are: 1) Continue effective research, mentoring, professional development, and broader impact program components and refine as needed; continued components include extramural and intramural research, mentoring activities, the Summer Jumpstart, most individual professional development activities, and engagement in pre-MARC programs and populations; 2) Create a more effective Honors experience and obtain academic and administrative benefits for all MARC trainees through partnership with the UTSA Honors College; 3) Improve professional development training to better serve student needs by reorganizing our training sequence, enhancing training in critical thinking, intellectual property, grant writing/submission, implementing an individual development plan, and providing a more exhaustive foundation for success in the first year of doctoral training; and 4) Develop new Broader Impact activities to be carried out by the MARC program to broaden access to science and promote student retention, through activities such as implementing a pre-Biology BIOS summer workshop, training additional university funded undergraduate researchers, and partnering with the Office of Undergraduate Research to implement a Peer Mentoring program to help engage other undergraduates in research. The rationale of the UTSA MARC program is that by implementing the activities associated with these Specific Aims, which were developed in accordance with scientific literature and program evaluation, we will achieve the following major measurable outcomes for trainees who complete their MARC training: 1) The trainees will develop at least two strong letters of recommendation from research mentors, give two national conference presentations, and report increased confidence and confidence in their research skills. 2) 65% of trainees will matriculate into doctoral programs, the majority at T32 doctoral institutions. 3) The trainees will complete an Honors Thesis, honors coursework, and graduate with UTSA Highest Honors. 4) All trainees will create a grant proposal and 60% will submit it. 5) Trainees will respond favorably to the new training sequence and, after matriculation into the doctorate, report that the augmented training on successful transitions was effective. 6) Broader impact activities will directly result in 4 additional students pursuing the PhD annually. The training associated UTSA MARC program will be structured so that MARC trainees will participate in intra- and extramural research for a full two years. All trainees who are not members of the Honors College will immediately be inducted. Several career or recruitment seminars will be presented each semester. The program?s professional development activities will be reorganized into a six-semester training schedule that includes a five-semester professional development series. The first-semester Summer Jumpstart in Research (SJR) is run as an intense summer research program and will continue with few modifications. The SJR features basic concepts such as CV creation and maintenance, poster presentation, paper reading, abstract creation, basics of writing, and the development of the individual development plan (which will subsequently be refined). For the remaining semesters that MARC trainees are on campus, evaluation results have led us to integrate existing materials from the Research Careers and Professional Skills Development course with those from the UTSA Sloan Program for Exceptional Mentoring (for first year PhD students) to develop four hour-long one-credit professional development Honors seminar courses which will deliver stage-specific coaching and training. Grant Writing sessions will be implemented in the trainees? final fall semester, but the concept of preparation for creation of a proposal will be raised throughout training. MARC training will culminate with a final oral presentation and celebration of graduates. The duration for the proposed MARC program is five years. Twelve MARC training positions are requested and all trainees will be appointed for two years. Six existing seniors will continue in this program, so the projected number of unique trainees is 36, of whom 30 have the potential to graduate by the end of the program (6 rising seniors will remain). These numbers may vary due to attrition, although care will be taken to cultivate a recruiting population and select trainees who will excel academically and in the laboratory.