November 6th, 2009 | Queensborough Community College
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a grant in the amount of $190,894 to the Department of Biological Sciences and Geology at Queensborough Community College to create training workshops that will help prepare science students for careers as biomedical researchers. The grant is made possible through funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The grant is a supplement to the National Institutes of Health Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, in place at Queensborough since 2002, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented, minority biomedical science students who transfer to senior colleges to further their study in science and/or biomedicine.
The ARRA stimulus funding will enable the College to hire two qualified people in the life science and technical science fields, who recently have obtained either their Master’s degrees or doctorates, to mentor students enrolled in the sciences; as well as to obtain state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation for the College. Mentors, in addition to being paid a research salary, will gain valuable teaching experience during their two years term at Queensborough.
“This very generous award will have a double impact,” said Patricia Schneider, Ph.D., Professor, Biological Sciences and Geology and Principal Investigator for the NIH grant. “It will further enhance the research experience for Queensborough’s aspiring student scientists, plus it will create jobs for recent doctoral or master’s graduates.”
Currently, over 100 science students have benefitted from the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program at Queensborough. Each year, approximately sixteen Queensborough students participate in scientific research during the summer or during the academic year. Students work closely with a faculty mentor who provides guidance and serves as a role model. Mentors take a student-centered approach, designing a project within the student’s ability and setting realistic personal goals appropriate for the particular student. In addition to specific research activities, all students are required to conduct a relevant literature search, contribute to experimental design, keep accurate records, and perform appropriate data analysis. Each student submits a research paper and gives a formal oral presentation at the final seminar for the class.
Queensborough Community College, a College of The City University of New York, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary during the 2009-10 academic year, along with the launch of the Freshman Academies and the opening of the new Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center. Queensborough, located on a picturesque 37-acre site in Bayside, Queens, offers a rich liberal arts and science curriculum, as well as career and pre-professional courses. Over half of the faculty holds doctorates compared with 21% of faculty in other community colleges nationwide. Comprising one of the most diverse populations of any college in the U.S., nearly 15,000 students pursue an Associate degree or Certificate program and another 10,000 students of all ages attend continuing education programs. Among the campus’s prized resources are the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center, the QCC Art Gallery, and the Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC), created to stimulate ideas and intellectual curiosity while exposing students and the public to culture and the arts. Please visit our website at qcc.cuny.edu.
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