How can a veterinary college get more qualified minority students interested in veterinary science and biomedical research?  How about offering high school students a summer to work on laboratory research with a faculty mentor, as well as an opportunity to sample the wide array of activities in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine?  And why not invite high school biology teachers to campus to learn about new discovery-oriented teaching strategies they can share with other teachers and use to spark the interests of their students back home?

That’s just what the Minority High School Student and Teacher Summer Program did this past summer.  Minority high school students have been coming to Cornell since 1981 for the veterinary college’s summer research apprentice program.  But now, thanks to funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the new program includes a component for minority high school teachers or teachers who work with a significant number of minority students.

This past summer, 10 high school students, selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants, spent six weeks on campus working on research projects with veterinary faculty members.  They came from California, Virginia, Puerto Rico and New York, and included five Hispanic students, four African American students and one Native American student.  Two biology teachers, who both work in schools with large proportions of minority students, came from Rochester and New York City to spend a month on campus as part of the program.

“The college is committed to increasing the size and quality of the pool of underrepresented minority students interested in pursuing undergraduate, professional and graduate education in the biomedical sciences,” said Clare Fewtrell, associate professor of pharmacology.  Fewtrell, who chairs the faculty committee on affirmative action in the veterinary college, co-directs the high school program with Janet Scarlett, associate professor of epidemiology and associate dean for student services.  She explained that the program is based on the belief that early formative experiences and individual mentoring are important influences on professional career choices.  “It is clear from past years that the program has significantly enhanced minority interest in and awareness of veterinary medicine and biomedical research,” Fewtrell said.

The Program for Students

Each high school student is linked with a faculty member who is actively engaged in a research project involving animals.  They spend mornings doing laboratory research under the auspices of their mentor.  This year, the mentors included:

• Hussni Mohammed, associate professor of clinical sciences, who is analyzing factors associated with the epidemiology of Potomac horse fever and the risk of developing equine motor neuron disease, which is a model for Lou Gehrig’s disease in humans;
• John Bertram, assistant professor of anatomy, who is using structural engineering techniques to elucidate the relationship between anatomical structure and movement in a variety of animals;
• Dwight Bowman, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, who is studying nematode and protozoan parasites;
• Paul Bowser, professor of microbiology and immunology, who is investigating tumors in fish that are caused by retroviruses and evaluating therapies for treating diseases in fish;
• Katherine Houpt, professor of physiology, who is studying various factors that impact the behavior and psychological well-being of animals;
• Susan Suarez, associate professor of anatomy, who is analyzing the pattern of movement in sperm on their way through the reproductive tract;
• Sydney Moise, associate professor of clinical sciences, who is investigating a form of sudden death syndrome in German Shepherd dogs;
• Peter Nathanielsz, professor of physiology, who is studying fetal development and the role of neurotransmitters in the fetal and maternal brain, placenta and uterine muscle;
• David Robertshaw, professor of physiology, who is studying the control of respiration during exercise;
• Larry Carbone, veterinarian, Center for Research Animal Resources, whose student helped with clinical veterinary work and a research project on animal health care and behavior.

In addition to their research projects, the students attended lectures, laboratory sessions and demonstrations in veterinary medicine for a behind-the-scenes view of many of the exciting projects under way in the college.  The topics ranged from zoo animal medicine, embryo transfer technology and animal behavior to avian anatomy, electron microscopy and equine motor neuron disease.  The students also had advising sessions that focused on how to choose colleges and prepare successful applications, and weekly meetings with professors Fewtrell and Scarlett to discuss the research process, ethical issues and how their own research may contribute to the body of knowledge in a particular field.  They also wrote a scientific paper describing their research and, at the end of the program, each student gave a 15-minute presentation about his or her project.

Program for Teachers

The program is designed to offer a first-time participant the opportunity to join the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT) and enables a returning graduate of CIBT to do full-time research.  This summer, the program included two teachers, one in each phase of the program. Edwin Klibaner of New York City spent three weeks in the CIBT, which included a course on molecular biology, laboratories designed for high schools, and computer workshops.

“We believe that teacher participation in CIBT is the most effective way to help teachers keep pace with the explosive growth of scientific knowledge in health-related areas, and to enable them to develop new teaching approaches for transferring this knowledge to their students,” said Fewtrell.

George Wolfe of Rochester, who had previously attended CIBT, worked in the research laboratory of Ross MacIntyre, professor of genetics and development, conducting experiments with fruit flies. He also held four spirited laboratory sessions with the minority students in which they conducted genetic experiments using another insect that Wolfe believes could be a better model than the fruit fly for high school laboratories.

“Since the program began in 1981, we’ve had more than 100 students participate, and at least three-quarters of them have gone on to some form of higher education,” says co-director Scarlett.  “We think that participation in this program both heightens the students’ interest in veterinary medicine and research as well as increases their competitiveness as candidates for higher education down the road.”