脂肪酸结合蛋白. 大脑瀑样. The 22Rv1 prostate cancer cell line. 前体IGF-II. Aminoflavone. LEDGF/p75 integrase binding domain. 免疫球蛋白抗体.
What do these scientific terms mean, 我是怎么, an English major and French minor from Walla Walla College, 现在大学, ever get involved with biomedical research at the doctoral level? This opportunity to work with underrepresented minority scientists was one of the biggest surprises of my career which I had imagined would be teaching high school or college English classes my whole life.
I had a brief brush working with a group of scientists when I was the writing coordinator for the faculty at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The physics professor and I wrote a National Science Foundation grant which funded an introductory, 集成, writing intensive course for non-science majors from 1996-1998. 除了写助学金, 我的第一个, I got to teach the course with a physicist, 一个化学家, 一位环境科学家.
But in 2002 while teaching at La Sierra University, I received a call that would change my life and give me a bird’s eye view of the real world of science research. I helped edit a National Institutes of 健康 (NIH) grant and then began working with the writing of biomedical Ph.D. students, several being non-native English speakers. The early grant grew into bigger grants and soon the Center for 健康 Disparities and Molecular Medicine (CHDMM) in the School of Medicine at Loma Linda University was launched.
As part of the CHDMM summer programs, I taught gifted high school students interested in science careers as well as worked extensively with graduate students involved in the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD). These biomedical researchers needed further support for their writing, and with my background in composition and rhetoric from my Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan and years working with writing across the curriculum, 这是一场很好的比赛.
The main goals of the CHDMM are to increase the number of minority scientists while addressing the health disparities that affect so many minorities. 根据疾控中心, “health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, 受伤, 暴力, or in opportunities to achieve optimal health experienced by socially disadvantaged racial, 少数民族, 以及其他人群, 和社区.“因此, these young researchers are working in prostate, 胰腺, and breast cancers and diabetes among other diseases which disproportionately affect various racial and 少数民族 groups.
These noble goals are what I joined in to help with. I taught writing seminars to first-year IMSD students, writing and publishing workshops for the “veteran” IMSD students, and worked one-on-one with them as they wrote grant proposals, 供出版的文章, 论文的章节. That’s how I learned science terms. 和, 是的, 我还不是科学家, but I can tell when a sentence filled with science jargon just doesn’t work! One important admission: I am not the only person helping with the writing of these brilliant students. Their principal investigators (PIs), 他们的导师, know the ins and outs of science publishing, 为提案争取资金, 并帮助撰写论文. I was simply another voice urging them that writing is not frightening; it's do-able and has rewards.
After several years of working with these young researchers, I finally asked the head PI Dr. Marino De Leon what possessed him to add a writing specialist to the NIH grant proposals. He immediately responded: “I can take anyone and teach them to do bench science, 但如果他们不会写字, 科学无处可去.” 和, so, what are the results of this writing initiative over the last 20 years? Ph值为43.D. 他们中有7人拥有硕士学位.D./Ph.D. 度. They have published 145 articles and the number continues to grow as 34 more Ph.D.S很快就要完成了. They present their work at conferences all over the world, and they have gone into prestigious fellowships, 行业, medicine and medical research (some with their own funded labs), 和教学.
I have loved making a small contribution and being part of such a dynamic and significant program to support minority scientists. It's been an honor and a pleasure to have served in some capacity toward this work, but I had no idea that my degree from WWU would be the foundation for starting on this journey.
