Connecting Students to Environmental Health Researchers

Program Director: Michael Trush, PhD

The central goal of this program is to provide short term educational experiences for research to connect undergraduate and high school students with investigators involved in environmental health research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This research could range from studies at the molecular level up to population-based studies. Secondary goals include: 1) increasing the awareness of these students of the opportunities for research careers in the field of environmental health; 2) increasing the number of students aware of these career opportunities by accepting students from different colleges and universities and high schools; and 3) increasing the number of students that apply to undergraduate or graduate programs relevant to environmental health. The program will extend from the beginning of June into early August, generally ten weeks. Students are paid a stipend of ~$10.00/hour.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
When students arrive, there will an introductory orientation program at which time they will be given a calendar outlining the date and times of the various activities involved in this program and a handbook describing various aspects about the Department and School. We will also emphasize the necessity of the program being kept informed of their future educational endeavor of students.
The majority of students' time (90%) will be spent in the laboratory interacting with faculty scientists, graduate students/postdoctoral fellows and technicians. For two hours a week the students will attend the environmental health seminar and one hour a week, the program's environmental health journal club. Students will also be eligible to attend the weekly Diversity Summer Interns Program seminars related to future education and career development. The culminating activity of this summer research experience will be that the students, in conjunction with their mentors, will develop an abstract and poster of their research for a Research Symposium.

HOW TO APPLY
Interested students should apply on-line to the program director, Dr. Michael Trush, or by mail submittal to: Dr. Michael Trush, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E7537, Baltimore, MD 21205.
Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

a. academic performance (generally a GPA > 3.0)
b. science courses taken
c. interest in environmental health as it relates to humans
d. letters of recommendation
e. prior laboratory experience (more relevant for undergraduate students)

Initial review of applications will be conducted by the program director for relevance of research interest to environmental health and public health. No one criterion will govern whether an applicant is accepted. Rather, an applicant will be assessed for a combination of qualities that make him/her stand out. Following this prescreening, general interests of an applicant will be matched with those of a faculty member interested in training a student. Recommended applications will be forwarded to training faculty for review. Accepted applicants are assigned to a faculty mentor, who will oversee their research project. Accepted applicants will be notified by the program director. The faculty member sponsoring the student will contact the student directly to discuss project specifics.

This program is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, R25 ES016149. This number should be acknowledged on all abstracts and publications.

Faculty