This exploratory sequential mixed-methods case study explores the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and faculty mentorship with biomedical sciences graduate students. The intent of the study was to understand the extent at which faculty mentorship contributes to self-efficacy development in the population of biomedical sciences doctoral…

The Maryland Action for Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Research (MADDPR) Program provides hands-on lab experience and mentoring to underserved minority high school students. Over 4 years, 93 high school students and their science teachers participated in the two-week summer camp program which was led by 15 faculty from the School of Pharmacy.…

Effective mentorship is critical to the success of trainees in research career pathways, significantly impacting their research productivity, academic and research self-efficacy, and career satisfaction. Research faculty may be unaware of or unprepared to address mentor--mentee dynamics in mentoring relationships, especially those that go beyond…

Amidst the dual challenges of an eight-month university closure from nationwide public university strikes in Nigeria and the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we needed to innovate the delivery of BME graduate curriculum to ensure graduate students continued to progress in their studies. To ensure BME graduate students were engaging in…

The Maryland Action for Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Research (MADDPR) Program provides hands-on lab experience and mentoring to underserved minority high school students. With the inability to conduct an in-person STEM summer camp, the program transitioned to a virtual format in 2020. Thirty-three students and their PLTW teacher participated…

Graduate students and postdocs in science, technology, engineering, and math fields are faced with a wide range of career paths to employment, but they are often not trained to effectively pursue these opportunities. The lack of career management skills implies long tenures in graduate school for many students, especially as tenure-track positions…

Pathways to biomedical careers are not being pursued with equal vigilance among all students. Emerging research shows that historically underrepresented (HU) students who maintain a strong science identity are more likely to persist. However, the influence of social support on persistence is less studied, especially as it relates to science…

As literature indicates, historic racism and implicit bias throughout academia have been profound metrics leading to a lack of diversity, as related to people from underrepresented groups according to race and ethnicity, among biomedical sciences graduate students in U.S. universities. Recognizing such challenges, a team of biomedical scientists…

The number of biomedical PhD scientists being trained and graduated far exceeds the number of academic faculty positions and academic research jobs. If this trend is compelling biomedical PhD scientists to increasingly seek career paths outside of academia, then more should be known about their intentions, desires, training experiences, and career…

The proportion of research misconduct cases among trainees in the biomedical sciences has risen, raising the question of why, and what are the responsibilities of research administrators and the research community to address this problem. Although there is no definitive research about causes, for trainees the relationship with a research mentor…

Mentors rarely receive education about the unique needs of underrepresented scholars in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. We hypothesized that mentor-training and peer-mentoring interventions for these scholars would enrich the perceived quality and breadth of discussions between mentor-protégé dyads (i.e., mentor-protégé pairs). Our…

Qualitative studies that examine the experiences of underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are comparatively few. This study explores the self-reported experiences of underrepresented graduate students in the biomedical sciences of a large, midwestern, urban university. Document analysis of…

We examined the relationship between sense of professional identity and academic success among under-represented minority graduate students in a biomedical doctoral program. We found that a sense of professional identity is related to science success among under-represented minority students, but not for non-underrepresented minority students.…

There are various ways to succeed in recruiting and retaining underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral students; but key to them all is the creation of real student-faculty relationships, which demonstrate by example that diversity and excellence can and should coexist. This cannot be delegated or done indirectly, and no amount of outreach, campus…

An innovative gerontology education program was developed to advance research on aging that is interdisciplinary and promotes the translation of knowledge from lab to life. The program focuses on communication and social interaction in healthy aging. It brings together faculty mentors, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows from six…