FA 5 Progress Report WV-INBRE - Joan C. Edwards School of ...

Program Director/Principal Investigator (Last, First, Middle): Rankin, Gary O 16student interns with HSTA graduates will be supported throughout the formative high school level trainingyears of the HSTA students.WV-INBRE-funded faculty project investigators at the PUIs have shown interest in developing programs toattract qualified high school graduates to the biomedical research programs at their institutions and will workto provide contact and mentoring resources for the HSTA students and graduates. Thus, we hope toestablish a viable means to continue the training and development of these students throughout their 4 yearsof undergraduate education. In developing phase 2, the coordinator will work closely with the HSTAprogram, the PUIs, and the WV-INBRE database manager to strengthen the tracking of these students asthey progress through their careers and better document how many of these students pursue a biomedicalresearch related career and the nature of their career choices.SUBPROJECT PROGRESSIn phase 1, the WV-INBRE/HSTA Coordinator hoped to establish interactive connections with theHSTA regional clubs throughout the state and representatives of the WV-INBRE partner institutionsand has been successful. The coordinator has maintained contact with all 15 HSTA Field SiteCoordinators (FSCs). They provided information concerning the 78 HSTA clubs in the 29 highschools in 26 counties in West Virginia. A list of HSTA teachers and their contact information, thevarious HSTA club meeting dates, and locations were provided. The FSCs distributed brochures attheir HSTA club meetings. Coordinator spoke at the Mon/Marion HSTA orientation and participatedin a group panel discussion about INBRE. INBRE-funded researcher, Dr. Yi Charlie Chen ofAlderson-Broaddus College, and a summer 2010 /2011 INBRE intern, Rebekah Sine spoke abouttheir INBRE research and experiences at a Tucker County High School HSTA club meeting.INBRE-funded researcher, Dr. Gagan Kaushal, of University of Charleston spoke at a SouthCharleston High School HSTA club meeting about his research. At these meetings a presentationand informational brochures were presented to students concerning the opportunities of theWV-INBRE program.In phase 2, the WV-INBRE/HSTA Coordinator has used information provided by the HSTAdatabase, HSTA FSCs, and representatives at the PUIs to locate and contact HSTA graduates withbiomedical science majors at the PUIS. The WV-INBRE grant received a NCRR ARRASupplement directed toward the HSTA initiative. Funding was provided for research positions andsupplies for 12 HSTA graduates at the PUIs. During the 2010-2011 academic year, 8undergraduates were placed in the WV-INBRE funded research labs with the following mentors:Christina Sargent and Sasha Richmond in Tesfaye Belay’s lab at Bluefield State College; JeremyLloyd in Darrell Crick’s lab at Concord University; Anthony Johnson in Robert Harris’ lab at WestVirginia State University; Amber Wilson in Jarrett Aguilar’s lab and Kyle McGill in Robert Kreisberg’slab at West Liberty University; and Jacob Wagoner in Timothy Troyer’s lab and Morgan Miller in LukeHuggins’ lab at West Virginia Wesleyan College. HSTA coordinator (Valerie Watson) and otherINBRE representatives (Andrew Shiemke, Gary Rankin, Elsa Mangiarua, Nalini Santanam) spoke ata number of HSTA symposia during April-May 2011. Talks were given at the following symposia:Braxton/Webster counties, Marion/Monongalia counties, Tucker/Barbour counties,Taylor County, Preston County, Greenbrier/Fayette counties, Eastern Panhandle Region, andKanawha County. INBRE representatives also acted as judges for the science projects. Five highschool science teachers were funded for 9-week summer research internships that began on June13, 2011. Wendy Lee from Musselman High School and Denise Gipson from Jefferson HighSchool were mentored by Dr. Seung-yun Kim at Shepherd University. Timothy Clifton from HerbertHoover High School and Tiffani Smith from Huntington High School were mentored by Dr. RobertHarris at West Virginia State University. Rene Norman from Sissonville High School was mentoredby Dr. Dean Reardon at University of Charleston. Two additional teachers were funded forinternships this summer through other funding: Johnathan Baldwin from Scott High School wasmentored by Dr. Gerald Hankins at West Virginia State University and Brian McNeel from CabellMidland High School was mentored by Dr. Richard Egleton at Marshall University.PHS 2590 (Rev. 06/09)Continuation Format Page