Columbia Medical School Offers Summer STEM Opportunities for Hundreds of Students
Each summer, classrooms that were emptied at the end of the spring semester are filled again with students learning about biomedical sciences. However, instead of being medical or graduate students, these students are younger secondary school and college students sometimes experiencing STEM for the first time.
Multiple Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons education opportunities, known as pipeline programs or “pathways,” help prepare students for a variety of possible career paths to pursue after high school and give college students the chance to learn from and work directly with Columbia’s most renowned researchers and scientists. Columbia offers pipeline programs throughout the year but most occur during the summer months when students are on break.
For faculty and researchers, pipeline programs bring a new generation of students into the world of STEM to experience the same joy of scientific discovery they found in their careers. This joy is what keeps the programs alive.
Last summer, the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative hosted a day of science for middle school girls from New Jersey. Witnessing the students in a real lab for the first time inspired CSCI scientists to continue the program this summer, says Barbara Corneo, director of the Columbia Stem Cell Core Facility, who organized the events with Joanna Smeeton, the H.K. Corning Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine Research.
“The excitement on the face of one of the girls, when she saw under the microscope her own cells from a buccal swab, was wonderful to witness. She was amazed that there were so many cells in her body. She knew it in theory, but she really didn’t know that in reality,” says Corneo.
“We won’t ever forget that joy. It’s the same I felt the first time I saw DNA in my first isolation experiment and that I feel now every time I see fibroblasts become pluripotent stem cells.”
This year, CSCI offered two events—one for middle schoolers and another for junior and senior high school students recruited from under-resourced New York City high schools and from backgrounds historically underrepresented in STEM fields.
For both events, Corneo and Smeeton worked closely with two community groups, STEAMpark and HYPOTHEkids, which provide educational opportunities to students throughout the year and select program attendees based on their interest in science and motivation.
Students participated in hands-on lab activities, listened to CSCI PhD students talk about their career paths and experiences in sciences, and heard from the Columbia admissions team about financial aid and the admissions process. Both last year's and this year’s programs were sponsored by ThermoFisher, Bristol Myers Squibb, Life Technologies, and PopSockets, which provided funding to donate portable microscopes to the students.
“Many of our lab members and volunteers talk about their ‘sticky’ memories from early encounters in science camps or enrichment in middle school,” says Smeeton. “We hope that these outreach days will provide those kinds of future memories to our program students and send them home thinking about a career in science.”
Smeeton and Corneo also know that a passion for science isn’t always enough to hatch a career.
“By introducing ourselves and our journeys, we show them how we each walked a different path to find a home in science,” Corneo says. “Many of us are the first in our families to have a career in science, so we recognize the need to open a window on the existing possibilities in this field.”
Widening the scope
The CSCI’s outreach events are just a sample of many programs for middle school, high school, and college students across Columbia's medical campus (see below for short descriptions and links). The Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging helps to advertise programs to students and runs its own program.
Clara Leon, director of the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and its programs, particularly values the opportunity to introduce hundreds of New York City students to careers in biomedical sciences.
“We look forward to serving underrepresented students in advancing their STEM and health care careers,” says Leon. “We want to share our campus resources to help them achieve their goals as the next leaders in health care.”
At the end of June, the office hosted its inaugural STEM QUEST event to help students in the office’s State Pre-College Enrichment Program explore future careers through interactive workshops and a fair featuring Columbia's education enrichment programs. Faculty, staff, and students from programs that included dentistry, cardiology, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering hosted 26 sessions for the 700 students in attendance.
This summer the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging also will provide academic support, college readiness, and early exposure to health care to over 240 students through the S-PREP, SHPEP, and NERA MedPrep pipeline programs. Eighty of those students reside on campus, allowing them to experience Columbia as students do during the academic year.
In addition to learning from faculty, researchers, and staff, participants are guided by VP&S students who act as mentors, preceptors, teaching assistants, advisers, and resident assistants to the students in the programs.
“The pathway programs are important because they give ways for our internal community to work together, exchange knowledge, and network with students from our local community and across the country,” says Leon. “The programs serve to promote a more diverse and culturally aware health care and scientific workforce.”
| About 700 local pre-college students attended the inaugural STEM QUEST day hosted by the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The office's director, Clara Leon, and Monica Lypson, vice dean for education at VP&S, spoke at the event. |
Other pipeline programs at the medical center:
State Pre-College Enrichment Program (S-PREP)
S-PREP is a free high school and college preparatory program designed for 7th - 12th grade students who are interested in pursuing a career in medicine or related STEM fields.
The purpose of the program is to increase the number of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students prepared to enter college and improve their participation rate in mathematics, science, technology, health-related fields, and the licensed professions. S-PREP is offered by the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and is a New York State Education Department Science & Technology Entry Program (STEP).
Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP)
SHPEP is a six-week summer enrichment and residential program for first- and second-year college students interested in the health professions. The program was established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Columbia site supports students who are interested in medicine, dentistry, nursing, and physical therapy.
Northeast Regional Alliance (NERA) MedPrep HCOP Academy
NERA MedPrep HCOP Academy is a partnership among Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and Manhattan-Staten Island Area Health Education Center to expand health career preparation for underrepresented/disadvantaged students from junior high school through college with the goal of increasing students’ competitiveness for medical school.
Gerald E. Thomson Undergraduate Pre-Medical Program (GET-UPP)
GET-UPP is a pre-med program for CUNY, Columbia, and Barnard students designed to supplement students’ academic trajectory as they pursue medical school admission. The program runs during the academic year and includes mentorship and practical experiences.
Ernest E. Just Biomedical Research Scholars @ Columbia program
The E.E. Just program—a collaboration between Columbia and the United Negro College Fund—provides college and graduate students at historically Black colleges, universities, and medical schools (HBCUs) with research opportunities and access to mentors at CUIMC.
As part of the E.E. Just Research Scholars Program, Jaron Whitehead, a student at Morehouse School of Medicine, conducted research on heart muscle cells at Columbia. Image: Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
EClose Institute
In collaboration with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office, the eCLose Institute provides students in grades 6-12 with scientific research experiences and promotes and supports their interest in the field.
During each week-long program, students conduct in-person classroom experiments with eCLOSE Institute staff and hear virtual lectures from Columbia faculty, graduate students, and staff.
In 2022, 18 sophomores and juniors from University Heights High School in the South Bronx spent a week conducting hands-on lab experiments to study cancer with the eClose Institute and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Photo by Timothy Lee Photography.
Summer Program for Undergraduate Rising Stars (SPURS)
SPURS provides an intensive summer science experience for college students from groups underrepresented in the scientific workforce. Each summer, 10 to 15 students are mentored by Columbia scientists and spend two months conducting research in Columbia labs.
YES in THE HEIGHTS Program (formerly CURE)
The YES in THE HEIGHTS program, formerly known as the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE), at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, is a summer internship for high school and undergraduate students that aims to increase the pool of underrepresented and underresourced youth entering STEM fields.
Program to Inspire Minority and Underserved Undergraduates in Environmental Health Science Research (PrIMER)
PrIMER is a Mailman School of Public Health program for full-time undergraduate students that provides research experiences in environmental health sciences. Students from colleges and universities in the New York City area are eligible to participate in the two-year program, which is funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
Biostatistics Epidemiology Summer Training Diversity Program (BEST)
The BEST program was established to expand and diversify the behavioral and biomedical sciences’ workforce by introducing undergraduates from underrepresented populations to biostatistics and cardiovascular and pulmonary disease research. Students who have overcome barriers in their path toward further education in the sciences and public health join the Department of Biostatistics at the Mailman School of Public Health for eight weeks of research, training, academic and career planning, and social activities around New York City.
Former Biostatistics Epidemiology Summer Training (BEST) Program participants. Photo from Mailman School of Public Health.