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Program Director:
Dr. Carl Maida
Adjunct Professor of Public Health
University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Public Health and Community Dentistry
10833 Le Conte Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095
3102063029
cmaida@ucla.edu
The links below describe the outcomes and challenges this grantee experienced and what resources they are willing to share.
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Pprogram activities will enhance the interest of high school juniors and seniors in science as it relates to oral health. Students will be recruited from two community organizations that serve members of underrepresented and/or educationally disadvantaged groups in Los Angeles: College Bound and Project GRAD Los Angeles. Our primary goal is to increase the pool of underrepresented and/or educationally disadvantaged youth in oral health research. To attain this, we have created a health research career program to prepare gifted disadvantaged high school students for science and research programs in college. At the same time, two secondary goals can be achieved: the project will raise the awareness of oral health issues in the students' communities thereby providing an effective support structure for them as they enter college, and the project will help train the next generation of dentist-scientist researchers to mentor others. The oral health science curriculum has these objectives: 1) increase knowledge of oral health and infectious disease; 2) improve attitudes and beliefs about oral health; and 3) introduce and promote the dentist-scientist as a career choice. The program will consist of three linked components. A Saturday Academy will meet for four hours, once a month from September to June, followed by an on-campus, in-residence, intensive six-week Summer Research experience in university laboratories, and post-mentoring activities related to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division Poster Presentation. Post-secondary student activities will include a ten-week seminar course on mentoring for oral biology graduate students involved as mentors to high school student participants. An undergraduate student advisor will be living with the high school students in the residence hall to provide support and assistance in developing their understanding of science and its potential as a career. Pre-doctoral dental students, many of whom are conducting research in these laboratories, will also be involved in providing support to the high school students. Through UCLA's Community-Based Learning Program, undergraduate students will have an opportunity to tutor, assist with SAT preparation when necessary, and provide other support. The two partnering community organizations have established various programs for families of college-bound youth. We intend to use these organizations' relationships with families to further engage parents in the educational experiences offered to their children. Program assessment includes the design and analysis of the instruments that will benchmark the impact of the project on the students, their families, and their graduate student research mentors. The HHMI-sponsored Entering Mentoring materials currently being used at UCLA's California Teach Resource Center will be incorporated into the expanded Preparing Future Faculty program that will include the oral biology graduate students from UCLA laboratories who will serve as mentors to the high school students. We will adapt the Entering Mentoring instruments for evaluating the effectiveness of the mentoring experience for both the high school students and their mentors, and then assess the change in the oral biology graduate students' interest in academic careers and their awareness of the challenges facing underrepresented and/or educationally disadvantaged groups.
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