ICAP is the recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Fellowship, expanding the Next Generation portfolio of global health training opportunities for Columbia University students. This new NIH-funded program will provide global health research training opportunities for minority and underrepresented students with the ultimate goal of strengthening global health by contributing to a more diverse global health research workforce.
The program will provide mentored training in global health research to ten students each summer, focusing on underrepresented students from Columbia College, Barnard College, and Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, School of Nursing, College of Dental Medicine, School of Social Work, and College of Physicians and Surgeons. Students will receive hands-on research training at three international sites: ICAP in Swaziland, the International Family AIDS Program in the Dominican Republic and the Global Health Research Center of Central Asia (GHRCCA) in Kazakhstan.
The 11-week summer program is designed to provide intensive skills training in global health, health disparities, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and the responsible conduct of research. Trainees will receive an initial two weeks of training and seminars in New York, followed by eight weeks of mentored research at international research sites and a final week of training in New York.
“This is an exciting opportunity to work with a new generation of future global health leaders and to help them leverage their individual strengths and competencies to enrich the field of global health research,” noted Dr. Miriam Rabkin, director of health systems strategies at ICAP and program director of the new initiative.
“We are thrilled to provide this opportunity for our students and to continue nurturing the next generation of professionals committed to global health” added Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, ICAP director.
The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Fellowship is the newest addition to ICAP’s Next Generation program, which provides learning opportunities, internships and clerkships for students of public health, medicine, nursing, dentistry, social work, and business. For over a decade, students have gained rich field experience and honed public health skills through ICAP programs and benefited from ICAP’s commitment to education and training, as well as program implementation and research.
Applications for the 2014 Fellowship are being accepted until February 10, 2014. Eligible students will be from racial and ethnic groups that the NIH considers to be underrepresented in the health sciences, and/or from rural and low socioeconomic groups. Information and application guidelines are available “online”:https://icap.columbia.edu/student-center/fellowship.
