UM STAR Program Graduates First Class

Minh-Phuong Huynh-Le (left in photo) has long had an interest in health because she hopes to some day become a doctor. She studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the year, but over the summer, wanted to return home to Maryland and expand her understanding of public health to prepare herself better for medical school.

Huynh-Le found that opportunity through the University of Maryland Summer Training and Research (UM STAR) program, offered through the School of Public Health. This week, she and other undergraduate students from across the country--New Mexico, Louisiana and elsewhere--gave their culminating research presentations and become the first "graduating class" from this innovative program.

UM STAR is designed to give traditionally under-represented minority undergraduate students career development activities in the areas of the biomedical and behavioral aspects of cardiovascular disease. Funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the program hosts students for 10 weeks over two summers, immersing them in advanced research and preparing them to enter and complete graduate or medical school.

Dr. Jim Hagberg, an exercise physiology professor and one of UM STAR's directors, believes that the program can help bring greater diversity to university faculty and Ph.D. programs.

"A lot of our disciplines are not very diverse," Dr. Hagberg said.

During this summer, students spend their days working side by side with Maryland graduate students and faculty on research projects. Ubong Obot, a senior biology major here at Maryland, studied how exercise effects cognitive decline, particularly in relation to a specific gene that's been linked with Alzheimer's Disease. In measuring the working memory of patients with the gene, he found that those who exercised showed markedly less cognitive decline than those who were more sedentary.

"This is like being in grad school," Obot said of UM STAR, adding that he appreciated the opportunity to work closely with his mentors every day. He plans to attend graduate school for biomedical engineering next year.

For some students, the UM STAR program was their first exposure to in-depth public health research. Merije T. Chukumerije, a biology/pre-med student at Xaiver University of New Orleans, focused his research on the effects of exercise on gene and cell expression, and was amazed at the vastness of the research opportunities he found.

"There's so many places you can go," with his particular research area, Chukumerije said, adding the myriad of research interests of his fellow students--from smoking cessation to childhood obesity--present untold possibilities for further exploration.

Chukumerije added, "I didn't realize the effect of public health" before beginning the program. He plans to look for research opportunities at Xaiver in the fall, and is considering a combination MD/PHD program for his graduate studies.

Beyond research, UM STAR students had the opportunity to tour Capitol Hill and the National Institutes of Health as well as teach elementary school students from the Washington D.C. Higher Achievement Program about flexibility, vital signs, balance, and BMI. In the picture below, an UM STAR student helps an elementary school student learn about flexibility.


As the first class graduates, Dr. Hagberg sees the program as a success, noting that one of the students will be attending Harvard Medical School this fall. Looking ahead, he sees UM STAR as one step of an ongoing process to increase diversity in public health and cardiovascular research--this will not happen over night, he says, and hopes to begin educating high school students in these fields of study in the near future.

"The sooner you can start, the better," Dr. Hagberg said.

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For more information about the UM STAR program, visit their Web site here. Congratulations to the students who completed the program, and we look forward to a new crop of UM STAR participants starting next summer.