MINORITY FACULTY DEVELOPMENT | Volume 17 | Winter 2004
Project Success Together Again
By Judith Sanford-Harris, PhD, Director of K-12 Programs, Office for Diversity and Community Partnership
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Project Success alumni/ae with HMS advisors at 2004 Reunion Dinner |
Project Success alumni, advisors, and members of the Office for Diversity and Community Partnership came together in the Faculty Room of Gordon Hall at Harvard Medical School (HMS) on January 7, 2004 to re-connect, reminisce and share plans for the coming year. Project Success: Opening the Door to Biomedical Careers is the Minority Faculty Development Program’s (MFDP) eight-week summer research program for Boston and Cambridge high school students. Approximately 15 program participants are paired with HMS faculty advisors each summer for a mentored, hands-on, paid research experience.
Project Success is able to boast an alumni database of more than 100 students in its 11th year of service to students. In addition, 99% of its alumni have gone on to college and several have continued on to graduate, medical, and dental schools.
Two Project Success alumni, Carmen Corbie-Cohen and Glenn Hall, Jr. spoke to the gathering about their experiences as participants in the program and the value they place on those experiences as college students. Carmen was a participant in the first Project Success “class” in 1993 and in 1994 and still views Project Success as one of the most meaningful experiences of her life. While a Project Success student, Carmen worked with Julie Glowacki, PhD, Orthopedic Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1993 and with Cheryl Dorsey, MD, Beth Israel Hospital in 1994. Now a parent, teacher and graduate student, Carmen spoke to the gathering about the importance of perseverance and giving back to the community. Glenn, a senior at Tufts University, participated in Project Success for four years, while in high school and in college. He urged the younger students to stay focused and to believe in their own abilities. As a Project Success participant, Glenn worked with four HMS faculty: Maria Castells, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1999; Frank Sellke, MD, Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Cesario Bianchi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2000; and Robert Sackstein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, in 2001 and 2002.
Mary Frances Lopez, PhD, Instructor in Pediatrics, with joint appointments at HMS and Children’s Hospital, Boston, joined the group as a guest speaker to describe the obstacles she had to overcome as a young Latina woman in order to achieve her educational and career goals. She urged the students to seek out a mentor, to have faith in themselves, to stay in touch with each other and with their Project Success advisors, and to be sure to help others as they had been helped. Attendees stayed well past the dinner and formal program to network with other Project Success alumni and with HMS faculty advisors.
For more information visit www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/k12/project_success
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Apology to Faculty Mentors at The Office for Diversity and Community Partnership offers sincere apologies for the inadvertent omission of the Children’s Hospital Boston from the article by a Project Success alumnus that was published in our September 2003 issue of Mentations. We are deeply grateful for the ongoing generosity of Children’s Hospital faculty members who so graciously opened their labs to our students this past summer, as have many others in recent years. The researchers whom we wish to thank for their mentorship to Project Success students this past summer are: Bonny L. Dickinson, PhD |
Request for Project Success ’04 Advisors
By Judith Sanford-Harris, PhD, Director of K-12 Programs, Office for Diversity and Community Partnership
The Office for Diversity and Community Partnership and the Minority Faculty Development Program (MFDP) are seeking research advisors/mentors for the 2004 Project Success Summer Program.
For the past eleven years, Project Success: Opening the Door to Biomedical Careers, has placed high school students residing in Boston or Cambridge, Massachusetts, particularly underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students, in Harvard research sites where they complete hands-on, paid, mentored summer research projects under the supervision of Harvard faculty, attend science and career development seminar series and, through oral presentations and preparation of research reports, enhance their speaking and writing skills. Ninety-nine percent of Project Success alumni have matriculated at four-year colleges. In addition, the Project Success College Program provides an opportunity for past alumni to come back and participate in the program once they go to college.
The dates for this year’s eight-week summer research program are Monday, June 21, 2004 – Friday, August 13, 2004. For more information about placing a student at your research facility, please contact Angela Counts, Project Coordinator, K-12 Programs, Office for Diversity and Community Partnership at 617-432-4697 or by e-mail at angela_counts@hms.harvard.edu. Please join us in providing this unique opportunity for talented young people of our community.
