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APPENDIX D 64 STATEMENT BY CAREY NIEN-KAI LUMENG My name is Carey Lumeng and I am a first year fellow in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Michigan. Today I would like to focus on the needs of the young student. Having recently grappled with choosing a career, I feel that I have a good perspective from which I can identify the needs of young science students. In my presentation I would like to focus on the forces that persuade and dissuade students from entering research science. Let me first tell you a little about myself. I am a Chinese American who was born just down the way at Walter Reed Army Hospital, but I was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. My mother is a musician and my father is a physician and researcher at Indiana University. I attended public schools through 8th grade when I enrolled in a private high school. I continued on to Princeton University where I majored in Molecular Biology and graduated last year. I am just about to complete my first year of medical school training at Michigan and have not as of yet decided on an area of concentration for my Ph.D. As I struggled with what I was going to do with my life after college, I reflected a lot on the influences that caused me to choose a biomedical research career. One element I identified is that my excitement about science started early. I feel most people in this room can relate to this. If the NRSA program is interested in maintaining a steady supply of research scientists, it must have an interest in establishing the high level of excitement about science in grade school and middle school aged children which will lay the foundation for future growth. In short, science education must improve. I recently took part in a program sponsored by the American Medical Student Association at the University of Michigan that presented a course to 7th and 8th graders on the dangers of substance abuse. The school we visited was in a poor, blue-collar suburb of Detroit where very few students were expected to make it to college. For one session, we presented actual body organs for the children to see, touch, and learn about. I can only begin to explain to you the interest that this exercise raised in the children. I had been used to fighting for their attention, but I was stunned when they all listened attentively and quietly to me talk about the heart. This was also the first and only class where the students did not run for the door when the bell rang. If youâve ever worked with 8th graders, you know that this is quite an accomplishment. This experience showed me that these children, who come from a background very different than mine, could experience the same fascination with science I had when I was their age. These kids have the potential to become scientists, but without the correct nurturing, they will never come close to this goal. If the NRC is concerned about the future supply of scientists, then it is these children and children like them all over the country that should be given our attention and concern. I realize that setting the NRSA program on the task of revamping American science education is probably out of the scope of the program, but I feel that steps in this general direction can and should be taken. The involvement of groups such as the National Research Council in precollege science education can come in the form of awards to science teachers and to programs that are using innovative teaching techniques. Grants to schools in underprivileged areas that desperately need equipment, teachers, and other resources can make a difference in studentsâ lives. Communication and coordination between the NRC and the Department of Education may serve as a link that can feed ideas and personnel to science departments in schools. These ideas are very general but I feel that such measures can help reach the goal of improving the quality of research science. At the very least it will help create a public that can better appreciate and understand scientific discoveries. From the youngest minds. I now turn to the young adults in high school and college that are beginning the serious search for what the heck they are going to do with their lives. On April 22 of this year, the New York Times printed the words of 16 year-old Emma Kramer-Wheeler from Brooklyn, who best sums up what I feel these students need. She said, âRole models really help. I think that might be the most important thing. If you see somebody who you can relate to, who has gotten somewhere, you know you can get somewhere.â I was fortunate enough to have a means through which I could picture myself in science--my father. For many other students, lack of contact with role models in science hampers their development. Science interest alone can only get a student so far. A student must also be able to see him or herself in the career to have a grasp on what the future might hold for them.
