Jan. 15, 2003

Comments, Suggestions?

Making careers possible

By Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Gayle Slaughter, PhD, had no intention of becoming a mentor to budding scientists more than a decade ago when she accepted the task of arranging seminars for young college students who were working in Baylor College of Medicine laboratories for the summer. She was a young scientist herself, anticipating a career among the test tubes, microscopes and petri dishes.

Gayle Slaughter, PhD

When her department graduate program director asked her to set up the seminars, it seemed a routine task that would be easily accomplished. She arranged speakers and times for the first five and left to speak at a conference in Finland.

The Finnish conference was a triumph for her, and she came back certain that she would spend the rest of her career in a laboratory, trying to develop a new method of contraception for men. When she asked how the seminars had gone, however, she was shocked. The students had simply sat wooden through the presentations, asking no questions, seemingly terrified of the renowned scientists.

She called a meeting of the undergraduates. What was wrong? Again, they stonewalled her until one blurted out, "I go into biochemistry class at my school and there are 75 in the class. Seventy-two of them want to go to medical school. They ask, 'When are you going to get smart and go to medical school? Why don't they understand that science is important too?" It was clear that his own confidence in the future was shaken.

Slaughter wrestled with the problem. A few scientific lectures alone were not going to help the students solve that very fundamental dilemma, and they probably were not going to entice bright young minds into the laboratory. Slowly, she began to craft a program that showed students why science is important and how. She exposed them to different careers in the field, and she began to mentor her charges and draw others in to provide guidance as well. Eventually, she gave up her own research and concentrated on the problem of producing new crops of scientists to assure the future of the field.

The first result of her labors was the Summer Medical And Research Training (SMART) Program for college undergraduates. To say that the program, which enrolls between 80 and 100 students each summer, is a success is an understatement. Since it began in 1989, 1,201 different students have gone through the SMART Program, 328 of them members of racial and ethnic minorities groups that are underrepresented in science and medicine.

And as the SMART program grew, it was obvious that Slaughter was the heart of the program. "You went the extra mile for me," recalls Kevin Moses from Morehouse College, who is now in the MD/PhD program at Baylor and writing his PhD dissertation.

Each year, Slaughter and her cohorts sift through applications from college students who must have at least a 3.0 grade point average to apply. No one has to have previous research experience unless they are freshman, but they have to commit to at least 10 weeks in the program. They receive compensation worth approximately $3,000 (before taxes). Students have come from more than 200 colleges and universities during the program's history.

The positions in the program are always filled with interesting young minds, giving students a chance to work with others of different ethnic, educational and regional backgrounds. The only factor that brings them together is their interest in biomedical science.

Daily noon seminars cover a gamut of topics -- from how to apply for grant funding to the intricacies of cell-to-cell signaling. It's a dynamic list that varies from year to year. However, the most important part of the program is the opportunity to practice hands-on science under the supervision of some of the leaders in science today. Students work in more than 20 basic and clinical science departments, depending on their level of education, past laboratory experience and research interest. Each student has a project and is required to write a summary of their research at the end of the program.

The topics vary from isolating and sequencing genes to the study of cell proteins and viruses to the use of computers to analyze complicated biological data. Day-to-day interaction with scientists involved in research gives them the mentoring they need to enable them to decide how to proceed with their careers.

A Graduate Record Examination preparatory course is offered to some of the students. Slaughter saw the need for it early, but she lacked the funding to pay for students to attend the courses already available. Instead, with a grant from the Model Project for Women and Girls Program of the National Science Foundation, she helped develop her own course. In the pilot year, practice GRE scores among her students went up an average of 371 points. Sixty percent of those taking the course increased their scores between 420 and 550 points. Seventy percent increased scores on the analytical portion of the examination so that they were above the 90th percentile.

The program is being continued for SMART Program participants through an initiative for Minority Student Development grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences and other program grants. A large collaborative program has been funded by the National Science Foundation to test the SMART GRE Prep Course at five women's colleges. Among them is Spelman College where scores have increased an average of 200 points, even with 70 points in the course. Slaughter has shared information about developing the course at national and regional conferences.

The Minorities for Excellence in Research and Graduate Education (MERGE), also supporting by the Initiative for Minority Student Development grant, dovetails well with the SMART program's desire to attract people from under-represented minorities to science careers. There was no MERGE program when Cynthia DeLeon Galvan entered graduate school in the neurosciences at Baylor College of Medicine, but she said it would have helped when she was the only female student from an under-represented minority in her program. She mentors current MERGE students as well as those in the SMART program, and she is pleased to see more women from ethnic and racial minorities entering scientific fields.

"Gayle Slaughter helps them a lot," she said. "There are laptops they can checkout and tutoring for classes. I never had that. There are books they can check out, She brings in minority speakers."

Galvan said that when a person gets into graduate school, he or she feels lucky - no matter what his or her background is. "I got lucky," she said. "But I am from San Antonio where they are lots of people looking toward that goal. In other colleges, however, there might not be that kind of outreach. I will always feel lucky."

However, if there was luck involved, it was mutual, said Slaughter. "We at Baylor felt lucky that she (Galvan) chose to continue education here." Galvan was an outstanding graduate student, winning the Beckman Award for the most outstanding platform presentation at the annual Graduate Student Symposium.

Susan Magdaleno, PhD, who now works at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, remembers that when Slaughter began to look into how to interest more under-represented minorities in education at Baylor, she approached Dr. Magdaleno, then a young graduate student.

"She asked, 'What did I need as far as being a minority,'" Magdaleno said. "I was really enthusiastic, and she was receptive to my suggestions." At least 50 graduate students at Baylor have been part of the MERGE program since it began in 1998.

Being encouraged to go into science and given the support to stay is important, said Magdaleno. Many people do not think of scientific careers for youngsters of African-American or Hispanic descent. She remembers the advice she got as a smart high school and undergraduate student. "Everyone tells you to be a doctor or an engineer. No one tells you to be a scientist," said Magdaleno.

To give others a chance to consider science, she frequently went to high schools during her graduate school days in Houston. Working with high school students is important, she said.

Baylor College of Medicine sponsors an eight-week high school research program for youngsters going into their senior years. It gives high schoolers a chance to understand what working in a lab means.

"We need to start early when the scientific curiosity is still there," said Magdaleno.

Slaughter credits Baylor's support with her success for the program. Unlike some institutions where working with students is a dead-end career, Baylor has supported Slaughter's role in developing and conducting programs for young scientists. Her department of molecular and cellular biology promoted her to tenured associate professor. The college awarded her the Barbara and Corbin Robertson Presidential Award for Excellence in Education and her colleagues elected her to chair the GREAT (Graduate Research, Education and Training) Group of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is now assistant dean of graduate education.

© Copyright 2003 Baylor College of Medicine. All Rights Reserved. MLE.