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Collaborations of the Heart:Cardiology Research
| Summer in the City: At CUMC, Minority Programs Sizzle |
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“Everyone is aware of the disparities in health care,” says Hilda Hutcherson, M.D., associate dean of diversity and minority affairs at P&S. “By increasing diversity among health care workers, we can decrease the disparity because physicians from minority populations are more likely to practice in underserved communities. Improving health in minority populations will benefit the entire country by improving productivity and putting less of a strain on our health care system.”
Columbia diversity efforts began in 1968 with the opening by P&S of the nation’s first office of diversity to assist with recruiting, counseling, educating, and training underrepresented students in health care professions.
For Dr. Hutcherson, who has been in her post since 2002, the mission to recruit minority students grew out of personal experience. “Nobody expected that someone like me, who grew up poor in Alabama and who had no role models in my family or neighborhood to talk to about what it’s like to be a doctor, would wind up going to Stanford, and then Harvard Medical School,” she says. “These kids need somebody to guide them. They need mentors. And they need to find ways to believe in themselves.”
Each of the summer diversity programs at Columbia – which range from academic enrichment programs for middle school students to scientific research for New York City high school teachers – is geared toward helping underrepresented students achieve their dreams.
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Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SMDEP is a nationwide program for college students interested in applying to medical or dental school. It is an intensive six-week session involving mentoring, lab work, honing of study skills, and classes in career development. Each participant receives room and board as well as a $500 stipend upon completion of the program.
“We give students learning and test-taking skills to prepare for the MCAT or DAT, and the knowledge and experience they need to improve grades in college,” says Hilda Hutcherson, M.D., associate dean in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. “We also give them certain science courses to address medical school prerequisites, and even expose them to the clinical practice of medicine.”
Many of the students who enter the SMDEP program want to become medical professionals but lack a firm understanding of the challenges and the confidence to meet those challenges. SMDEP changes all that.
“I was always interested in medicine, but I didn’t know what aspect. This program allowed me to have a varied experience,” says Richard Ansong, CDM’08, who immigrated to the United States with his family from Ghana in 1999 and attended the program in 2002. It was Mr. Ansong’s interest in dentistry as well as medicine that spurred Marlene Klyvert, Ed.D., senior advisor in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, and Dennis Mitchell, D.D.S., assistant dean of diversity and multicultural affairs at the College of Dental Medicine, to put together a program for Mr. Ansong that exposed him to oral health care specialties as well as medicine. That program became a model for the development of similar ones at institutions across the country.
Summer Program for Underrepresented Minorities (SPURS)
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Founded in 2002 by Andrew Marks, M.D., chairman, physiology and cellular biophysics, SPURS grew out of Dr. Marks’ belief that Columbia should scout out talent from a wider pool of applicants. Initially, Dr. Marks arranged for a number of Hunter College students to come to Columbia for a summer of lab work. Now, students also come from Queens College and Brooklyn College. “Our goal is to keep it focused on New York City because we have a rich resource right here,” says Alan Dindas, a former New York City schoolteacher who is the program’s director.
To recruit new SPURS students, Mr. Dindas and a Columbia scientist associated with the program – Dr. Marks or co-executive director, Jeanine D’Armiento, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine – visit Hunter and other colleges to lecture on the program and encourage interested students to apply. Accepted applicants are then carefully matched to a lab and PI. After eight weeks of work, students present their findings in a poster session open to everyone in the Columbia community. The combination of lab skills and mentoring that the program offers gives students a real edge in pursuing their careers.
“It was enormously beneficial,” says Ingrid Tulloch, who participated in the SPURS program in 2005 between her sophomore and junior years at Hunter. As a nontraditional student, Ms. Tulloch had returned to college at 30, after her sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia. “Part of what I wanted to do in science was learn about this disease, to see if I could contribute to finding a cure,” she says.
Ms. Tulloch was placed in the lab of Eric Kandel, M.D., University Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, Psychiatry, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and 2000 Nobel Prize winner. The fortuitous match propelled Ms. Tulloch in a new direction; she is now a graduate student at CUNY’s biological psychology and neuroscience department, conducting research based on the skills she learned in Dr. Kandel’s lab.
“These kids are already unbelievably good students,” says Mr. Dindas. “They have all overcome obstacles to get here; our job is to give them a little extra push. In science, mentoring is hugely important in developing a career. We just try to bang open some doors to give them a wider range of references and a wider network of people to go to for help.”
Summer Research Program for Secondary School Science Teachers
Secondary school science teachers in New York City have a daunting responsibility – instilling in their students a basic understanding of scientific inquiry and methodology so they can get along in an increasingly science-based world. Yet at the same time they face tremendous challenges – students often have a poor foundation in science and teaching materials and equipment are often broken or obsolete.
Many science teachers also have had little direct experience in the hands-on practice of science. The Summer Research Program for Secondary School Science Teachers, founded in 1990 by Samuel C. Silverstein, Ph.D., the John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at P&S, has helped middle and high school science teachers overcome this handicap. By bringing them into the labs of Columbia researchers, the teachers develop a deeper understanding of their subjects. At the same time, they are imbued with a sense of enthusiasm and awe that is at the foundation of scientific inquiry. They return to their classrooms transformed.
“It’s been such a good experience that I just wish it could go on longer,” says Rachel Lytle, a second-year pro-gram participant who will teach at Manhattan’s LaGuardia High School this fall.
The program lasts two consecutive summers. When the new teachers are chosen, they are paired with researchers who share their interests. “We try to give them a research experience close to what they’re teaching and what they’re interested in,” says program coordinator Jay Dubner.
The program is equal parts academic and practical, and each accepted teacher receives a summer stipend, financial support to attend a professional conference, and an additional $1,000 to purchase equipment and supplies to translate their Columbia experience to their classrooms.
While the experience itself lasts just two summers, its effects are much longer lived and far-reaching – for the teachers, their students, their schools, and the community.
In New York State, students have to pass five Regents exams, including one in science, to graduate. The science exam is the one that most frequently prevents students from graduating on time, if at all. Students whose science teachers have been through the program have been shown to pass their Regents at a higher rate than those whose teachers have not attended the program.
“The teachers leave the program better teachers, energized about the importance and relevance of science, and linked into a network of supportive peers and mentors they can turn to long after they finish,” Mr. Dubner says.
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The Science & Technology Entry Program (STEP)
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, STEP is an award-winning statewide academic enrichment program for economically disadvantaged middle and high school students. Run under the auspices of the College of Dental Medicine by director Marlene Klyvert, Ed.D., STEP is considered a model for similar programs.
During the school year, STEP classes meet on Saturday mornings, but during the summer session students have four weeks of enrichment courses in science, math and English. They also go on class trips to such sites as the Smithsonian or the National Library of Medicine.
STEP is more than a few classes and summer field trips: It addresses the full range of challenges often faced by economically disadvantaged students and their families, by providing information about career options, financing a college education, and improving leadership skills.
While younger STEP students build their academic knowledge, older ones take SAT prep courses and work at jobs through the Earn as You Learn program, which allows them to work in the dental clinic while taking summer classes, thereby reducing economic barriers to participation.
“We prepare these youngsters to get into good colleges and access health careers,” says Dr. Klyvert. “We graduated about 22 kids this year, and they were all accepted to top colleges. That makes us feel we are doing something valuable.”
Also celebrating 20 years, S-PREP, the State Pre-College Enrichment Program, offers academic courses, career counseling, and college prep classes to talented and highly motivated high school students with an interest in pursuing higher degrees and careers in science and medicine. Each year, 80 underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged students take part in the Saturday series that runs from October to May and features special speakers, field trips, and informational sessions on practical but critically important issues such as applying for financial aid.
“We seek to increase the number of students interested in the science and health professions by educating and motivating high school students toward becoming the doctors, research scientists, and health professionals of tomorrow, ” says Richele Jordon-Davis, assistant dean in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.
The program has been a remarkable success and has produced a P&S faculty member, Kathie-Ann Joseph, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of surgery.
This year, to celebrate their 20th anniversaries, STEP and S-PREP hosted “Super Science Saturday” at the Armory to reach out to middle schoolers in the Washington Heights and Harlem communities.
—Keely Savoie
