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Graduate Teaching Internships: Using an NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program to Benefit both Tribal Colleges and Graduate Education in the Sciences
Author(s) -
Sukalski Katherine A,
Schwert Donald P,
Montplaisir Lisa M
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a222-c
Subject(s) - internship , medical education , interview , graduate education , graduate students , service (business) , medicine , psychology , political science , economy , law , economics
The five tribal colleges in North Dakota play a key role in educating American Indian students and are positioned to contribute to the preparation of these students for careers in biomedical sciences. Tribal colleges often struggle fiscally to employ sufficient science faculty and science faculty recruitment is also challenging. We describe here a Graduate Teaching Internship (GTI) program that addresses these issues. At the same time, the program provides a valuable teaching experience for graduate students. Graduate students in the sciences are recruited at the two North Dakota research universities to serve one semester in teaching service to a tribal college. The GTIs participate in a GTI Academy where topics include basic classroom and assessment strategies and orientation to the tribal college community. The Bridges staff keep abreast of developments during the semester via required weekly GTI journals. Early in the semester, the GTIs and staff meet to share experiences and problem solve. Later, staff members visit the tribal colleges, interviewing the GTIs and their tribal college mentors and observing a class. Four GTIs successfully completed service as science instructors in the spring of 2006. Results of surveys indicated the program was regarded as very beneficial to both the colleges and GTIs. Supported by NIH‐NIGMS grant 5 R25 GM075319‐02.