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SOT Recognizes the 20th Anniversary of the Undergraduate Minority Program
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Vanessa Silva and Adrian Nanez are members of the Committee for Diversity Initiatives. Like many SOT members, they provide hours of their time to develop and implement programs that further the discipline of toxicology. Not only do they share membership on this committee, they share another connection. Both first became involved in SOT as undergraduate students invited to participate in the SOT Undergraduate Education Program for Minority Students, an important step that led them to subsequently pursue graduate study in toxicology. Dr. Silva attended the 1995 program, and Dr. Nanez participated in 2000. Both have been faithful supporters of the program ever since, serving as peer mentors while graduate students and then as host mentors and program organizers. These two toxicologists and countless others who have supported the program will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Undergraduate Program for Minority Students on March 14 in Baltimore.
Through the flagship Undergraduate Program for Minority Students, SOT has an excellent track record supporting recruitment of students from underserved groups into the profession. The Undergraduate Program began in 1989 when Faye Calhoun, then at NIH, and Mary Jo Vodicnik, Education Committee chair, and others arranged for local students to attend the Atlanta meeting. The Education Committee organized a similar program the next year in Miami. Education Committee chair Marion Ehrich, after brainstorming with Faye Calhoun, Claude McGowan, and Jay Gandolfi, submitted a successful proposal to NIH-Minority Access to Research Careers for three years of funding beginning with the 1991 meeting in Dallas. A testimony to the strength of the program and the efforts of the organizers is that this funding has been sustained for every year of the program except for a hiatus for the Philadelphia meeting in 2000 when revision of the evaluation program was needed. That year Pfizer stepped in to provide funding, and they have continued their support in subsequent years. Among others who have provided financial support are Johnson & Johnson, Covance, and Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Marion Ehrich continued to serve as PI on the grant for a total of four funding intervals, followed by Myrtle Davis, and Jose Manautou is the PI on the current grant that runs through the 2011 program. Leadership and organization was provided through the Education Committee, then the Education Subcommittee for Minority Initiatives was established, and then the separate Committee on Diversity Initiatives was created in 2005.
About 35–40 outstanding undergraduate students and 6 undergraduate advisors are selected each year from institutions around the United States. Awardees receive support for travel and lodging and complimentary meeting registration and attend a special program that begins on Saturday before the official start of the meeting. Elements of the program that have been in place across the years include an orientation to what toxicology is, research lectures, a poster session organized explicitly for the students, opportunities to meet with academic program directors, and information about successful application to graduate school. Students are organized into small groups, each of which has one or more toxicologist host-mentors and graduate student peer mentors, so that students can get to know individual toxicologists and talk informally about careers in toxicology.
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| Undergrad Students Participate in 2008 Program |
Anniversary activities are planned for the evening of Saturday, March 14, including special presentations, recognition of invited guests, sharing of historical perspectives, and networking among the many people who have provided the energy for this program through the years. Watch for additional details. All who have been part of the program in the past two decades are encouraged to attend.
You can help build the program in 2009 by serving as a mentor for a group of students in Baltimore. For more information, contact Betty Eidemiller.
Academic training programs and research internship sponsors have the opportunity to showcase their programs in an information and recruiting session on the afternoon of Sunday, March 15. Contact Kim Daniel or Betty Eidemiller to reserve a space for your program
"Eye on CDI" provides vignettes of some of the other program participants who have pursued careers in toxicology.
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