We invite your best students to apply for our NIH/NCI-funded (5 R25CA023944-32) Pediatric Oncology Education (POE) Program https://www.stjude.org/poe. The program offers a unique opportunity for pre-doctoral students preparing for careers in the biomedical sciences, medicine, and pharmacy to gain biomedical and oncology research experience. Students participate in basic or clinical oncology research, research and clinical conferences, and a core lecture series designed specifically for them. All participants make a PowerPoint presentation on their research project and submit a report on their research project written in the style of a journal in which their faculty mentor publishes.
A primary goal of the POE program is to encourage students to pursue a career in cancer research. Thus, we are particularly interested in highly qualified students with a serious career interest in cancer research, either as a clinical scientist or laboratory-based research scientist. The St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was recently established to offer training in leading-edge scientific fields paired with unique mentoring in the St. Jude clinical experience. Highly motivated POE students would have opportunities to join the inaugural class of the Graduate School in August, 2017. More information about graduate education at St. Jude is at https://www.stjude.org/graduate-school.
Prior research experience is required for all applicants. The POE 2015 class average undergraduate GPA was 3.85. In 2015, 56 students from 44 schools in 30 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia were selected from over 500 applicants. POEs must be United States citizens, non-citizen nationals, or possess a visa permitting permanent residence in the United States (required by the funding agency). All must have completed at least their college sophomore year by the time they participate. 2016 POE medical students will spend a minimum of 10 weeks in the program. The minimum tenure requirement for all others is 11 weeks. All POE applicants must have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.40 (on a 4.0 scale) in math and science (biology, chemistry, and physics) and at least a 3.40 overall. The subsistence allowance will be $400/per week for undergraduates, and $480/week for all others. Fully furnished group housing will be provided at no cost for non- local participants.
The POE home page https://www.stjude.org/poe contains links to the program application. The deadline for receipt of all 2016 application materials is February 1, 2016. Early application is highly recommended, since we make some early placements. Letters of recommendation sent as PDF attachments to email are required. Members of under-represented ethnic minority groups and women are particularly encouraged to apply, since one of our major long-term program goals is to increase the diversity of persons engaged in oncology research and practice. Our NIH/NCI-funded (2 P30CA021765-36S2) Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) grant provides remuneration for additional undergraduate under-represented minority POE Program participants.
Thank you for your time!
Suzanne Gronemeyer, PhD
Director, Pediatric Oncology Education (POE) Program
Director, Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) Program
Associate Director, Academic Programs
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
262 Danny Thomas Place, MS 304
Memphis, TN 38105-3678
suzanne.gronemeyer@stjude.org
https://www.stjude.org/poe
https://www.stjude.org/Gronemeyer
PS I advise students to apply for several programs, since most programs get many more well-qualified applicants than they can place. Many fine internship opportunities are listed on http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/preprof/summerprogs.html, http://www.asbmb.org/summerresearch/, and http://people.rit.edu/gtfsbi/Symp/premed.htm. Another option may be http://www.fhcrc.org/en/careers/internship-opportunities.html, or http://www.fredhutch.org/en/education-training/undergraduate-students.html. Graduating seniors may want to look into post baccalaureate programs such as https://www.training.nih.gov/programs/postbac_irta. Current medical students may be interested in http://www.chla.org/site/c.ipINKTOAJsG/b.4434829/k.8F5A/Summer_Oncology_Fellowship.htm, https://www.roswellpark.edu/education/summer-programs/medical/dental/pa-students, or http://msa.medicine.iu.edu/financial-aid/summer-opportunities.
For more information, contact: Kaitlin Heenehan at kaitlin.heenehan@uconn.edu