REACH Pipeline Summer Research Experience for Minority and Underrepresented High School and Undergraduate Students

REACH is an 8-week pipeline summer course for minorities and underrepresented college and high school students interested in careers in neuroscience. Developed, together with Drs. Jenny Libien, MD, Ph.D., and Juan Marcos Alarcon, Ph.D., the Research Experience in Autism for College and High School students (REACH) summer program, provides underrepresented college students an advantage in pursuing a career in the biomedical fields. The REACH course is a research centric program with supplementary modules aimed at enhancing the participants’ knowledge of neurological disorders with emphasis in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through comprehensive lectures and clinical experiences. Students also receive instruction in career development with emphasis in mental health disparities and cultural competence. These experiences will inform the student-generated hypotheses and project that the students will develop throughout the summer. The program recruits basic science investigators, physicians, clinicians and graduate (PhD and medical students) students as REACH mentors. Utilizing team-based and peer-mentoring strategies, the student participants with the aid of their dedicated faculty and graduate student mentors will develop research hypotheses regarding ASD that they will experimentally resolve by the conclusion of the 8-week program. By exposing the participants to a diverse population of mentors, we hope to impress upon them the path and attainability of a life in the neuroscience and biomedical fields. Our program’s long-term goal is twofold, first to increase access and retention of underrepresented minorities into the neuroscience/biomedical field. Second, to positively impact underrepresented communities through our students.