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The Biomedical Career Advancement Pipeline Program (BCAP) at Wayne State University is a summer research experience program for high school students interested in a career in the health science field. Applications to the program are being accepted online through February 14 at 5 p.m. The STEM-focused program is open to high school students in grades 10-12 and students from Wayne County will be given priority consideration due to the university's location. A GPA of 3.0 or greater is required. BCAP will run from June 18 to August 5, 2022.

BCAP allows high school students to work alongside WSU faculty in doing university-level research. "This opportunity is good for so many reasons. One, they're gaining skills on how to work in a lab and gaining experience in science," says Faith Briggs, BCAP Program Manager at WSU. "Two, they're getting networking abilities, working with WSU faculty, other students around the county, and meeting representatives that we bring in to talk to them about various careers. On top of that, it's a great opportunity to put on your resume, that you've had this experience. It is a high school to college pipeline; so of course, Wayne State University hopes that the students in this program would consider Wayne State University as a place to go when they graduate high school."

The BCAP Program is part of the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program established by Congress in 1971 to build up a healthcare workforce to serve medically disadvantaged populations. The Michigan AHEC was established in 2010 at WSU to increase the diversity of health professions students and practitioners while bringing health services to underserved urban and rural communities. BCAP is implemented through a partnership between Michigan AHEC, Health Care Detroit, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN).

High school students learn how to safely navigate a university research laboratory at WSU's Summer Research Program.

The BCAP Program will require students to dedicate 20 hours each week to a research project, attend an initial orientation and weekly workshops and training, and make a presentation of their research project at a research symposium and closing ceremony. Students will be mentored by university faculty and graduate students throughout the summer and will learn to develop writing and presentation skills. They will learn lab safety and how to handle lab equipment like microscopes, test tubes, and scales to collect and record data. The foundational lab and research skills students learn will be useful in other STEM careers as well such as environmental science or marine biology. "We have a career panel that talks about the different kind of STEM careers that are in health science," says Briggs. "I think no matter where you go after high school this is a foundational experience."

In addition, students will receive a monetary award upon successful completion of the program.

An online application to BCAP can be found at https://miahec.wayne.edu/southeast/highschool. For more information contact

[email protected].