A Stanford program that provides low-income and ethnically disadvantaged teens with hands-on training in science and medicine has been given the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The award, which comes with a $25,000 prize from the National Science Foundation was announced by the White House today.
In an online article, my colleague describes the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program and its successes:
SMYSP focuses on low-income and under-represented minority high school students from northern and central California. Those who are selected receive full tuition for the five-week program on the university campus. During that time, participants are immersed in science and medicine through a broad curriculum that includes anatomy classes in the human cadaver lab; hospital internships; group research projects; lectures by prominent scientists and physicians; college admissions and standardized test preparation; and long-term guidance to aid them on their path to science and health professions.
...The program’s results are impressive. More than 80 percent of its 547 alumni have graduated from four-year colleges, many of them the first in their family to do so. Among SMYSP’s college graduates, 47 percent are attending or have completed medical or graduate school, and 43 percent are working as or training to become health professionals.
“We have learned that the greatest value of SMYSP is that it addresses educational inequities by encouraging students to thrive at prestigious universities like Stanford and fulfill their potential in the sciences and medicine,” [program founder Marilyn Winkleby, PhD] said.
Previously: Stanford’s med school training programs in full swing
Photo by Steve Fisch
