Careers in Science and Medicine
Dr. Douglas Robinson created the cross-campus program called the Johns Hopkins Initiative for Careers in Science and Medicine (CSM). The goals of the CSM Initiative are to provide opportunities for individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds to pursue careers in science and medicine. Focused opportunities must be provided for individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and the major challenge is to ensure that individuals with interest and passion also have the skills required to succeed at each level of training. The program strives to meet these challenges through our CSM Initiative with support from the Thomas Wilson Foundation, United Way of Central Maryland, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, private donors, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and University.
Program Summary. The program has a pathway program that develops students (‘scholars’) from low socioeconomic backgrounds into successful professionals. The scholars specifically have an interest in pursuing health care, biomedical and/or STEM careers. Many are already pursuing training for these career paths, but require additional educational development and mentorship to ensure that they are ready for doctoral level programs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and elsewhere. To expand the pool of successful professionals, it is necessary to develop scholars beginning at a younger age; therefore, the pathway extends from 5th grade to high school to undergraduate to post-baccalaureate levels.
To be in the CSM, scholars come from households with incomes <200% of the federal poverty limit, though many scholars fall well below the poverty limit. Scholars must also be overcoming an additional obstacle, such as being first generation college or having attended or would have attended based on their home address a high school with greater than 50% of the student body on the Free and Reduced Meals program (FARM; most scholars come from schools with >~95% of the students on FARM). Many also come from households characterized by one or more of the following: single parent household, parent struggling with addiction or incarceration, abuse at home, or homelessness. To identify high school scholars, the program works with several close partnering organizations in Baltimore (e.g., Boys Hope Girls Hope of Baltimore, SEED School of Maryland, Green Street Academy, Baltimore City College, Dunbar High School, and Baltimore Polytechnic High School). To date, high school scholars have come from over 22 high schools across the greater Baltimore area. The program conducts national searches for the undergraduate and post-baccalaureate arms.
The program is structured to develop scholars’ hard academic and technical skills, professionalism, and a list of tangible accomplishments. It achieves these goals through mentored research and structured academic training. It draws upon the JHU scientific enterprise, endowed with phenomenal doctoral and postdoctoral trainees, staff, and faculty to deliver the programs. It provides exposure to role models who are highly successful faculty physicians, physician-scientists, and scientists. It also provides preparation for standardized tests to aid scholars as they seek admission into medical school.
Annually, the CSM Initiative is geared to serve ~30 high school students through the Summer Academic Research Experience (SARE; http://sare.cellbio.jhmi.edu) and Biophysics Research for Baltimore Teens (BRBT; http://pmb.jhu.edu/brbt/index.html). The program also serves ~16 undergraduates through the CSM Summer Internship Program (CSM SIP) and ~10 post-baccalaureate scholars through the Doctoral Development Program (DDP). High school, undergraduate, and post-baccalaureate scholars are compensated with a stipend that makes it financially feasible for them to participate; however, the stipends must be earned and the bar is set high. The one-week Fun with Science Camp serves ~10 5th graders per year, all of whom are from inner city Baltimore.
The programs are making strides. Of the 264 high school-level scholars who have come through the program so far, ~95% who have reached college age have matriculated into colleges all across the country, and >79% have chosen STEM or healthcare-related career paths. 74% of high school scholars graduate college by 4 years post-high school graduation, which is remarkable considering that the national average for students from the same socioeconomic background is just 14%. 78% of the post-baccalaureate students have been accepted into MD, MD-PhD, or PhD programs at a variety of institutions, including Stanford, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Vanderbilt, University of Chicago, Albert Einstein, Tufts, Mayo Arizona, Washington University in St. Louis, Brown University, Ohio State, and many more. The remaining have gone on to earn master’s degrees, pursued other allied health professions, or pursued other biomedical research career paths.