TCI Mentored Medical Student Summer Scholars (TCI-MMSSS) Program

The goal of our Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI) Mentored Medical Student Summer Scholars (TCI-MMSSS) Program is to inspire medical students to pursue careers in cancer research through engagement in an innovative, highly structured program of strongly mentored research and interactive curricular activities. Our program builds upon the foundation of a successful 10 week pilot initiative of a summer mentored research experience for medical students in which 69% of participants (rising second year medical students) have either already completed or have committed to pursuing an additional year of research with their mentors. Our proposed 15 week rigorously mentored research experience is designed to recruit exceptional, and highly motivated students interested in cancer research and enriched by novel pedagogical approaches to foster an innovative and nurturing learning environment using a strategically crafted Cancer Research Fundamental 101 (CRF 101) curriculum to advance research knowledge, analytical mindset and career skills. Our program leverages the seasoned mentoring capacity and scientific strengths of the TCI scientific programs including Cancer Immunology (CI), Cancer Mechanisms (CM), Cancer Clinical Investigations (CCI), and Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC), as well as our acknowledged expertise in Community Outreach and Engagement. Our program is also informed by excellence in basic, translational, clinical and population research in community-recognized catchment-relevant cancers including Liver, Lung, Multiple Myeloma, HIV-related malignancies and Prostate Cancer as well as Breast, Gastrointestinal and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. Our program Multi-PI Leadership team reflects complementary expertise in pre-doctoral education and medical student research to ensure the realization of potential for cancer research by each student participating in the TCI-MMSSS Program. We propose a holistic valuation process that incorporates validated tools to evaluate students, mentors, and the overall program to achieve continuous quality improvement and propose to follow program alumni over several years to obtain longitudinal outcomes to assess integration of cancer research into medical careers.