INBRE SCHOLARS Service Learning Program ARRA Goal: Increase the overall pool of minority students with an interest in pursuing a career in cancer health.

INBRE SCHOLARS Service Learning Program

ARRA Goal: Increase the overall pool of minority students with an interest in pursuing a career in cancer health disparity research

Broad Objective: Through mentoring and networking, we plan to increase the diversity of the health care workforce in Arkansas, affecting not only cancer research and health disparities, but minority health in general

http://www.uams.edu/INBREScholars/Home.aspx

Service-Learning–program has following goals

• Train minority undergraduate students, in community based participatory research (CBPR).

• Expose students to the problems of health care disparities, with specific focus on cancer based on race and ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and geographical location.

• Increase the pool of potential minority students who apply to and are competitive for entrance into any of the five major colleges and graduate school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

• Introduce minority students to the possibility of pursuing a dual degree (MD/MPH).

Specific Supplemental Aim 5: Establish a Service-Learning Program for minority undergraduate students designed to:

• Encourage students to consider careers in academia and health care.

• Introduce students to the concept of CBPR research.• Provide hands-on experience in developing community

partnerships.• Expose students to levels of critical thinking required in a

transdisciplinary research setting. • Allow students to develop those skills necessary to carry on

research.• Encourage students to establish research in areas involving health

care issues that produce a higher degree of morbidity and mortality in the minority community (health disparities research).

• Develop students’ abilities to critically read biomedical research.• Familiarize students with the performance of a literature review.• Develop students’ communication skills and abilities to give poster

and oral scientific presentations.

Tracking Success - performance relative to goals

• Competence 1: Analyze a research problem through a transdisciplinary and contextual perspective in order to maximize research relevance and impact.

• Competence 2: Integrate relevant ethical and legal issues in the design and implementation of CBPR research.

• Competence 3: Effectively communicate a specific research project or methods to other researchers in disciplines relevant to cancer health disparity and prevention research.

• Competence 4: Incorporate the necessary elements for development of a research approach that considers the participation of community partners.

• Competence 5: To participate in activities promoting knowledge exchange among researchers and communities.

An objective of the transdisciplinary training is to provide mentees an appreciation and working knowledge of evaluating, developing, and testing research hypotheses derived from science-based intervention findings, the underlying biological, psychological, and social processes that contribute to outcome success.

The instrument used for collecting data on competencies will be

a written self-assessment questionnaire.

The instrument will comprise five competencies. The response categories will range from 1 = do not agree at all to 5 = agree completely.

Metrics for Success

Topics for Service Learning1) Development of web-based nutrition registry. Using the Internet to

promote behavior change is becoming more desirable as Internet use continues to increase among diverse audiences. Yet we know very little about whether this medium is useful or about different Strategies to encourage Internet use by various populations. Students will test the usefulness of a Web-based intervention designed to deliver nutrition-related information to and increase fruit and vegetable consumption among adults in Cancer network communities.

Frank Onyeokeziri Jr., Sophomore University of Arkansas at Little Rock.Biology and Computer Science major

Anna Ragan, SophomorePhilander Smith College. Biology

2) Develop podcasts for community research training. Focused on barriers to research translation in communities and the importance of its context to communities. A major objective is to define what do communities want the whole world to know about their communities and what do they want to be educated on. Podcasts will be made centered on these identified topics. We will start a CBPR iTunes library.

Brandon Booth Sophomore Philander Smith College-Biology and Mathematics.

Dashawn FontenetteArkansas Baptist College - junior.Business Administration.

3) Developing standardized questionnaires for collecting demographics. Many investigators use questionnaires. It is often difficult to search these questionnaires after data collection because the questionnaires are often not in a format for easy query. The National Cancer Institute has developed a variety of software tools and standard data elements under the umbrella of the Cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG). These data elements can be used to standardize demographics across questionnaires.

JaQualane ScalesSophomore- Philander Smith College -Chemistry and Math

Jasmine BrownSophomore- Philander Smith College Biology and Math

4) Cancer Mortality in the Delta. Develop insights on cultural factors that contribute to the high mortality witnessed in African American breast cancer survivors. Project objective is to define these factors through focus groups in the Arkansas Delta. Students will assist in focus groups, transcribe tapes and use focus group methods to access whether these factors are also witnessed at the college level in African American women.

Candace SheltonJunior UAPBChemistry

Byron JohnsonJunior PSCBiology

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5) Community perspectives on Genetic information. Genetic studies in general have the potential to increase concern about the impact on families, racial and ethnic differences, ability to get insurance and impact on employment. Students will work with minority-centered focus groups to develop an educational program in genetic testing for African American and Hispanic communities.

Whitney D. LaGroneJunior, UAPBChemistry with a minor in Mathematics

Desha FarmerJunior -Human ServicesArkansas Baptist College.