Wednesday, May 28, 2025
5/28/2025
Virginia Tech Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (VT PREP) - Virginia Tech (VT) requests renewal of its successful Post-baccalaureate Research and Education program th (VT PREP) for another five years. Now in its 19 year, with proven and innovative approaches for recruiting, supporting, mentoring, and training underrepresented minorities (URMs), VT PREP continues its impactful process that now has 45 PhDs. Admission into our PREP is very competitive at less than 10% with an applicant pool that is national, including applicants from Puerto Rico and the US Territories. Based on this success, we propose to add an additional slot to each cohort, for a total of 45 trainees. In the current cycle (2018-2023), and including the gap year of support (2017), 22/29 or 76% of those who completed PREP, matriculated into Ph.D. programs at institutions such as Columbia, UNC, Yale, and the University of California (Davis, Irvine, and San Diego). In addition to the diversity of our applicants, the diversity of disciplines was also extensive ranging from biomedical engineering to neuroscience and computational modeling. Our unique and impactful program includes distinct activities that target three overlapping phases of each trainee’s tenure: “Moving in”, “Moving through”, and “Moving out.” The research education and mentoring activities in the “Moving in” phase are structured to enable easy transition to VT and a rural college town, and to learn about the trainees and for the trainees to learn about biomedical science and what it will take to succeed as a PREP scholar. Informed by our assessment in earlier cycles, the mentor selection process continues to be scholar-driven following three 4-week mini lab rotations each. During the “Moving through” phase, each trainee has individualized educational activities and mentoring structured to enable success in gaining admission to top PhD programs. Complementing these educational activities is a seminar series, which starts during the “Moving in Bootcamp,” entitled “Getting into and Succeeding in Graduate School.” All the speakers are PREP alums at least two years post PREP. In the “Moving out” phase, research training becomes a top priority and communications skills, including writing and oral, are further enhanced to help with graduate school interviews and in identity construction. Although we are proposing to continue using a training approach that has been very effective, a new training tool that is unique to VT PREP are the lived experiences of our PREP/IMSD alumni, 86 of whom have a PhD and are pursuing careers in academia, industry, the NIH, and private institutions. These alums and those still in training will be “virtual” alumni mentors. Dr. Achenie brings significant experience in mentoring students as a tenured professor with a background in mathematical modeling and quantitative skills. These complement the leadership and genomic training of the PD, which have been the hallmark of VT PREP for the last three cycles. Institutional support will continue to be very strong, mentor training will continue to be a part of our “moving in phase,” and the meaningful engagement with our alumni (18 returned to campus in the last cycle) will continue.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).