Catching Up With ReMARCable Vanderbilt Graduates

Four of the first-cohort MARC scholars in April 2022. From left to right: Cassidy Johnson, Lucy Britto, Hannah Craft, and Sim Plotkin. Credit: Dr. Katherine Friedman. In 2021, we shared the perspectives of third-year undergraduates who had recently joined the first cohort of the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt’s MARC program provides mentorship and professional development opportunities to third- and fourth-year undergraduates who plan to pursue advanced degrees and are from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. In spring 2022, as the cohort prepared for graduation, we followed up on their progress and postgraduation plans. “I feel really pleased with how well our students have done despite entering the program in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Katherine Friedman, Ph.D., an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt and a co-director of its MARC program. Four of the six first-cohort students are entering doctoral programs in fall 2022, and the other two have made preparations to pursue higher degrees at a later date. During their senior year, the first cohort not only prepared for graduate school but also supported the second cohort. “The senior students really took the other students under their wings,” says Douglas McMahon, Ph.D., the Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt and a co-director o...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Training Source Type: blogs