Transitioning to an Academic Career
Columbia is home to many programs that serve as a bridge for underrepresented minority and female candidates to advance from undergraduate to graduate studies, graduate studies to faculty positions, and junior faculty positions to research independence. Highlights of these programs follow below.
Undergraduate Programs
With funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, BEST was established by the Mailman School’s Department of Biostatistics in 2008 to expand and diversify the behavioral and biomedical sciences’ workforce by introducing undergraduates from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups, disadvantaged backgrounds, and students with disabilities to biostatistics and quantitative applications in cardiovascular, blood, sleep, and pulmonary disease research.
This program at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences enhances the participation of students from underrepresented groups in Ph.D. programs in the natural sciences. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the Bridge Program provides an intensive research, coursework, and mentoring experience to post-baccalaureates seeking to strengthen their graduate school applications and to prepare for the transition into Ph.D. programs.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration, NERA MedPrep builds on the collective expertise of four institutions—Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New Jersey Medical School, Mount Sinai School of Medicine Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, and the Manhattan Staten Island Area Health Education Center – to expand health careers preparation for minority and disadvantaged students from junior high school through medical school with the goal of increasing competitiveness for medical school.
The State Pre-College Enrichment Program (S-PREP) is a rigorous academic program for underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged middle and high school students, grades 7-12, interested in science, medicine or related health professions. The program aims to be a pipeline that will assist with increasing the number of underrepresented minority physicians, scientists and other health professionals. The program exposes students to basic and medical sciences, provides career awareness in science and medical professions, and college preparation.
The Summer Medical Education Program (SMDEP) is a six-week residential program for first and second year college students interested in careers in medicine and dentistry. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program aims to assist students who represent economic, geographic, cultural, racial and ethnic diversity in their pursuit of gaining admission to medical or dental school. Columbia University is one of 12 academic institutions hosting the program across the nation.
The Summer Program for Underrepresented Students (SPURS) provides an intense undergraduate biomedical research experience for talented students from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the biology and chemistry fields. SPURS main goal is to help minority science undergraduate students, primarily from New York City, achieve a career in science by pursuing an advanced degree (Ph.D., M.D./ Ph.D. or M.D.). SPURS participants are accepted primarily from the City University of New York (CUNY) senior colleges, including Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens, and City Colleges. The program has been supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Fund and other private donors. Now in its ninth year, over 100 students from underrepresented groups have been trained in the biological sciences. With funding from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the program will be expanded into the neurosciences to leverage the training opportunities with the outstanding faculty at Columbia University.
The Summer Public Health Scholars Program is a partnership among Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing, and Mailman School of Public Health. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the goal of the program is to increase the knowledge and interest in public health and biomedical science among minority undergraduates. The program will recruit and train 50 students a year from community colleges, four-year colleges, and post-baccalaureate programs who are undecided about their career choices. The intensive 10-week program allows students to work alongside public health professional mentors while taking courses in epidemiology, public health and health disparities, and cultural competence.
The goal of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Program for undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups is to prepare students for doctoral study in their area of academic and intellectual interest. The program's purpose is to expose underrepresented students to graduate-level academic research so that they may begin to view the academy as a viable and realistic career path, thereby addressing the shortage of underrepresented minorities in doctoral study and college and university faculties.
Graduate Programs
Program Description
The goal of the NSF S-STEM project at Columbia Engineering is to prepare a cohort of engineers to meet some of the societal and environmental challenges with a particular emphasis on the areas of water, energy and infrastructure. This program focuses on a research based master’s degree that affords program participants with a well-supported segue between an undergraduate degree in engineering and a doctoral program. The research theme of the program is Sustainable Engineering and students will complete two semesters of coursework and one semester of summer research. Each SEGUE Scholar will receive a full tuition scholarship from Columbia Engineering and a $10,000 stipend. SEGUE Scholars will gain research experience, professional training and mentorship that will equip them with the skills for success in a STEM doctoral program or a research based career in industry. Scholars are matched with a faculty mentor and must complete a research report or thesis as part of the master’s degree requirements. Funding for this program is provided from the National Science Foundation and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program was developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. PhD scientists and engineers who will pursue careers in research and education, with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become, in their own careers, leaders, and creative agents for change. Offering traineeships to students pursuing their PhDs, the program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is also intended to facilitate diversity in student participation and preparation, and to contribute to a world-class, broadly inclusive, and globally engaged science and engineering workforce. Columbia is home to four IGERT programs:
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The Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD), an education project funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, is aimed at increasing the number of underrepresented students who enter research careers in public health. The program supports eight doctoral students with one to two years of research mentoring, tuition benefits, and funding to attend scientific conferences.
Columbia’s HIV Science Training Program (HISTP), funded by National Institutes of Mental Health, is a multidisciplinary training program that seeks to develop and facilitate the growth of scientists from underrepresented groups conducting HIV-related dissemination and implementation research. The program’s goals are to address the urgent need to increase dissemination and implementation research to ensure that effective HIV prevention interventions are delivered to the communities that need them, and to train a new generation of HIV researchers to conduct such research to make a major impact in reducing new HIV infections, particularly among communities of color. Fellows participating in the program receive two years of support via an innovative dual mentorship structure, training seminars, workshops and institutes, pilot study support, and grant-writing assistance. The program utilizes a distance learning approach which allows junior faculty from across the U.S. to participate from their respective institutions.