Columbia VA Summer Research Program

Veterans Health Administration, Decatur PA

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY South Carolina (SC) is among the nation’s leaders in cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cancer, and mental health disorders, all of which disproportionately impact Veteran populations and underrepresented minorities. The biomedical workforce in SC, and particularly the VA, is insufficient to meet the challenges of the state. The purpose of this proposal is to continue the success of our pilot summer program by giving high school students exposure to, and undergraduate students experience with, biomedical research. The pilot CVAHCS Summer Research Program over the last two years demonstrated significant achievements including 1) Support for 11 undergraduate students who conducted full time biomedical research throughout the 8 week program. 2) Development and implementation of a high school research curriculum that engaged >40 local students. 3) Administrative success to onboard all undergraduate students by the start of the summer program and to ensure that all students received pay. 4) Organization, in coordination with CVAHCS Center for Development & Civic Engagement (CDCE)/Voluntary Service, of an end of summer “graduation” to celebrate the success of all students in the summer program. 5) A highly diverse group of program participants reflecting the diverse applicant pool, a high percentage of which have biomedical related career goals. This competitive renewal proposal adds new activities and innovations that were not implemented during the first two years of the program. These include 1) Laboratory skills training for undergraduate students to give all students basic laboratory competencies. 2) Additional near-peer mentoring opportunities to further enhance the interaction between undergraduate and high school program participants. 3) Off campus biomedical research and research career experiences for high school students. 3) Summer symposium for undergraduate students to present their work to the high school students. The overarching goal of this program is to enhance and refine the successful CVAHCS Summer Research Program to further build a diverse pipeline of biomedical researchers that will ultimately address the health care challenges facing Veterans. The CVAHCS in Columbia, SC is dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in both the biomedical research and health care settings. We will achieve this goal through the successful implementation of two major objectives. (1) To continue the successful CVAHCS Summer High School Research experience for students from diverse backgrounds. (2). To continue the successful CVAHCS Summer Undergraduate Research program for college students from diverse backgrounds. The CVAHCS is ideally positioned to continue this program over the next 5 years with committed staff and strong program leadership.