Launching Biomedical Careers for Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Group of RIT U-RISE students, including Bo Allaby (standing second from the right) and Maameyaa Asiamah (kneeling in front) who are interviewed in this post. Credit: Dr. Bonnie Jacob. Scientists who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) are underrepresented at all career stages, especially at the Ph.D. level. To address this, the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE) training program for undergraduates who are deaf and hard of hearing at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York, has committed to lifting barriers and increasing DHH representation in science. Part of RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the program is now in its fifth year and prepares undergraduate students who are DHH to enter graduate programs through community-building activities, mentored research training, communication access services like interpretation, and much more. We’ve interviewed two RIT U-RISE students and its director to learn how the program supports its trainees. Meeting Students’ Needs Bo Allaby. Credit: Courtesy of Bo Allaby. In high school Bo Allaby fell in love with the idea of doing research to learn more about why we think or act in certain ways. Now, Bo is a third-year psychology student at RIT and an undergraduate researcher through the U-RISE program. With her research mentor, Rebecca Houston, Ph.D., Bo is investigating how some people cope with brain damage more effectively than ot...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Profiles Training Source Type: blogs