Award Abstract # 1800998
(Collaborative Research) A Collaborative Approach to Work-Based Learning: Addressing the Needs of Community College Biotechnology Students and their Research University Mentors

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, THE
Initial Amendment Date: April 5, 2018
Latest Amendment Date: September 1, 2021
Award Number: 1800998
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Virginia Carter
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: July 1, 2018
End Date: June 30, 2021 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $132,989.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $132,989.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2018 = $132,989.00
History of Investigator:
  • Naledi Saul (Principal Investigator)
    Naledi.Saul@ucsf.edu
  • Laurence Clement (Former Principal Investigator)
  • Naledi Saul (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-San Francisco
1855 FOLSOM ST STE 425
SAN FRANCISCO
CA  US  94103-4249
(415)476-2977
Sponsor Congressional District: 11
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-San Francisco
1675 Owens Street, Box 0404
San Francisco
CA  US  94143-5803
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
11
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): KMH5K9V7S518
Parent UEI: KMH5K9V7S518
NSF Program(s): Advanced Tech Education Prog
Primary Program Source: 04001819DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 1032, 9178, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 741200
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

Although technical training at community colleges can prepare students for work in the biotechnology industry, industry and academic employers are sometimes hesitant to hire students with less than bachelor-level degrees. Successful internship programs that integrate work-based learning and undergraduate research experiences can increase the competitiveness of community college-trained students for these positions. The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is collaborating with the Office of Career Planning and Development at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to address this problem. This collaboration aims to align the Biotechnology Internship program at CCSF with the PhD-level Mentor Training program at UCSF. The CCSF students will work on research projects under supervision of UCSF mentors, while both are being trained on how to build effective mentor/intern relationships. In this way, the project will support productive relationships between UCSF mentors and their CCSF interns. This collaborative mentor/intern model is expected to help the interns develop technical and employability skills, and help mentors enhance their ability to train and supervise a diverse workforce.

The goals of this project are to increase the number of CCSF interns who work with trained UCSF mentors and to improve the quality of the intern-mentor relationship. The project aims to achieve these goals through an evidence-based, iterative approach to curriculum and program development by: a) identifying the needs of the CCSF students and their UCSF mentors; b) modifying the CCSF Internship and UCSF Mentor Training programs to respond to unaddressed needs; and c) examining whether joint interventions to align both training curricula improves the intern's and mentor's experience. The project includes a research component that can contribute new knowledge about and understanding of practices that increase the success of mentored research experiences. Furthermore, enhanced curricula, interventions, and tools identified by this project can be used more broadly to develop and enhance professional development for internship programs, graduate and postdoctoral training of mentors, faculty training, and industry professional training, with a focus on improved retention of diverse student populations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

Note:  When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

Clement, Laurence and Leung, Karen Nicole and Lewis, James Bennett and Saul, Naledi Marie "The Supervisory Role of Life Science Research Faculty: The Missing Link to Diversifying the Academic Workforce?" Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education , v.21 , 2020 10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.1911 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Making the Case for More Inclusive Bioscience Workplaces

The nation needs a strong and diverse biotechnology workforce to fuel innovation and ensure all communities are being served. To support this effort, a community college, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and an elite research university, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), collaborated to develop, implement and institutionally embed parallel inclusive workplace training curriculum for bioscience community college interns and biomedical researcher mentors to help establish better training protocols, foster transparent expectations, identify knowledge gaps and/or misunderstandings, and learn how to give and receive feedback so as to build greater trust and engagement (Figure 1). Student interns were then paired with trained research mentors in a inclusive work-based learning training model (Figures 2 & 3) in which:

  • Mentors and interns learned from each other as they tested out the concepts and tools from their preparatory training, including shared language and conceptual frameworks to create inclusive environments and navigate barriers with enhanced communication and mutual understanding.

  • The project team facilitated reflective learning through assessments and just-in-time interventions. This included providing systematic, frequent, and timely feedback to mentors, interns and community college faculty on internship progress via short frequent online assessments developed by the project team, focused on the use of inclusive workplace practices, and their impact on interns. These assessments provide cues to a) mentors on whether they were using appropriate practices, b) interns on red flags they should seek help to address, and c) internship coordinators and faculty on when to intervene with targeted coaching or advising for a particular intern.

Both of our target groups, the student interns and their research mentors, valued and benefitted from the inclusive work-based learning training model:

  • The research mentors were unanimous in their appreciation of the practical experience of mentoring a community college intern: 100% of mentors reported valuing gaining experience and practice applying tools in inclusive supervision, advising and training practices (there was a 10-fold increase in research mentors applying to host community college interns upon implementation of the training model); 100% of mentors reported that they strengthened their abilities to mentor trainees from diverse backgrounds; 100% reported that they would recommend the training to others. 

  • 100% of the interns reported that the internship strongly influenced their desire to seek a science career while 93% reported gains in their sense of self-efficacy in science. 2/3rds credited workplace navigation strategies in positively impacting their internship experience overall. 100% agreed or strongly agreed that they could trust their mentor and were comfortable sharing difficult information with their mentor. 60% of interns rated their overall internship experience as ?excellent?, while the remaining 40% rated it as ?good?. Many noted the importance of the laboratory and research skills they developed over the course of the semester. Others were grateful for the connections to a broader network of scientists, pleased to have additional guidance and support, and appreciating that these connections would help them when it came time to look for work. They reported gaining confidence in themselves as scientists who belonged and would succeed in a bioscience career.

In addition, this collaborative project led to:

  • A published framework for inclusive bioscience workplace practices in academic labs (tinyurl.com/InclusiveMentoring2020).

  • Development of a pathway for research scientists to counter inequities in bioscience workplaces, including the inclusive workplace training for research mentors in which over 500 researchers to date have participated.

  • Recognition of the importance and relevance of this training by the California Life Sciences trade association.

  • A new NSF ATE project to adapt the parallel curricula to industry and disseminate this curricula beyond CCSF and UCSF (DUE #2055735, 2055309).

 

 


Last Modified: 11/13/2021
Modified by: Naledi M Saul

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page