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STUDENT: ABRCMS is well this is my third time. Two times I came
as an undergrad when I was at the University of Delaware,
but this my first time as a graduate student
at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. And
I actually met my graduate student at ABRCMS
when I was doing my earlier research as undergraduate student.
I think this is a very important conference.
It helps with networking it helps these students realize that not only,
they’re not the only people doing this, there’s other people doing
this research and there’s other people that are
interested in them doing this research.
And on top of that, with this graduate student
forum that we have right now,
they can actually come and ask us "How is it really?"
And I think that was an important thing that I kind of
missed when I was doing this is that now that they have it.
You know you get to talk to graduate students and say
"How is it really in grad school? Give me the real deal."
And you’re able to do that.
And now you can encourage more minorities, African Americans,
American Indians, and Hispanics to go into this research
and actually be successful with knowing that they actually
have a network of students to actually talk to.
STUDENT: I have been working a lot with some students from Puerto Rico
Actually. I'm very excited because when I was an undergrad student
in Puerto Rico I didn't have that opportunity.
So it’s very, very good to see how minority students
are getting more into knowing science and liking science.
And this is the future you know of this nation so
hopefully we will grow and grow more and
we'll see if we can take over the world.
STUDENT: Particularly I'm interested in health disparities associated with minorities.
Particularly with African American males as it relates to ***/AIDS.
There’s not a lot of black males doing research, particularly on us.
And you hear about other literature and other pieces
and their bias as to the claims that they make.
And I think that it’s time that we one represent ourselves in
this account but also make it make it so that, it’s information
that can be useful for other people that will come after me.
So, it’s my responsibility as a young black professional to be,
to inspire those that will come up after me so that we can
continue this trend so that knowledge can be spread
and utilized for the benefit of other people
so that we can translate it in a way
that is beneficial to the world.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR: Personally I have had interactions with students.
Students who have told me this has been so phenomenal,
that the 10th anniversary was very meaningful for them.
They've learned actually how to apply for summer programs,
how to apply for medical school,
actually for M.D.-Ph.D. programs, for Ph.D. programs.
I've heard from program directors who were really excited.
There was one program director was telling me that
she can’t wait to get back to, to her home campus
and actually debrief her students so that they can kind of
compare notes and see how the events of this week have gone.
It's been a really really fascinating time.
I can personally recall um, some 12, 13, 14 years ago
when I was at this meeting myself as a graduate student.
And to see it go from then about, I guess about 200 or so students
To now some 3,000 individuals is really, really thrilling.
I’m excited for this 10th anniversary of ABRCMS
and look forward to many more years to come.
Thanks to:
Nicole Barkley, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Maria Lopez-Ocasio, SUNY Downstate Medical center
Rodrigus Graham, Morehouse College
Shawn Drew, Ph.D., NIGMS Division of Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Health, November 2010