SHINE aims to accomplish a series of learning outcomes:
Provide URM undergraduate students with rigorous research training and experiential research implementation.
SHINE interns will take part in rigorous training that is provided through the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research’s (IHESJR) Health Equity Internship program. Interns will learn skills that focus on designing, implementing, and disseminating research. The interns’ research training will also extend to their experiential research opportunity, where students will work with and be mentored by IHESJR Faculty Scholars to identify a research project each intern can work on during their internship experience, thus gaining experience in research implementation.
Provide URM undergraduate students with training and experience in ethical community engagement.
SHINE interns will be provided experiential knowledge in CPBR by being matched with a faculty mentor who is working on a research project with a community partner. Through this research experience, they will learn ethical principles, implementation and how to sustain community engaged research. Maintaining ethical integrity in CBPR is imperative when working with historically marginalized populations to advance health equity. CBPR also calls for a long-term commitment to sustainability through sustainable partnerships. Our CBPR-focused training will provide an understanding of the complexities of sustainability, showcase its challenges and benefits, and provide tangible techniques on how sustainability in CBPR can be realized.
Provide professional development opportunities and tailored mentorship to URM undergraduate students.
SHINE interns will get paired with and receive mentorship from a faculty scholar, and also gain mentorship from community and near peer research mentors. Dedicated Faculty will help interns learn how to conduct community engaged research from the academic perspective. Community partners will teach them how to work with community stakeholders in research from the community organization perspective; and near peer research mentors, who are mentors that are newly graduated that have previous opportunities engaging in undergraduate research experiences, will provide the student perspective. This mentoring triad will provide interns with opportunities for academic, professional, and personal growth.
Program Components
Experiential Research Implementation
SHINE interns will be matched with a faculty mentor to work on a community engaged, health equity research project. Interns will work on their own carved out research project that is related to their faculty mentor’s research will occur in the summer over 10 weeks. This component uses a developmental learning approach, where interns progress from relatively dependent to independent status by the end of the summer session. Interns will receive tailored mentoring based on research interests and will be matched with faculty, near-peer, and community organization mentors.
Research Training
SHINE interns will engage in rigorous training in health equity. All training courses have a health equity, community-engaged, and an interactive/hands on/practice component. The training sessions will take place during the fall semester (September – December) and continue in the spring semester (January – May). Weekly training sessions will focus on developing, implementing, and disseminating research and professional development.
Professional Development
As part of the fall and spring semester training, interns will receive professional development trainings that focus on careers in STEM, addressing barriers and facilitators to persisting in STEM and health-career fields, and providing guidance on graduate school applications. Professional development trainings are intertwined with the research trainings.
Ethical Community Engagement
Interns will have the opportunity to shadow two community organizations, MFFC and OYEA via their collaborating partners. Interns will gain insight into how community organizations address health equity and social justice work. They learn about ethical community engagement and how CBPR can be leveraged to reduce health disparities and address inequities. Each shadowing experience will involve a full day with the community partner.
Program Timeline
