Fishman Fund Awardees & Fellow (pg. 1,6,7) Funded CIRM Grant (pg

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

STEMCells&STEMEducation

by Paula Checchi, Ph.D. Program Manager, Recruitment, Outreach & Achievement

In January, "Stem Cells & STEM Education - a Summer Internship Program for California High School Students,

" (aka SPARK-SBP) a $509,000 grant from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was formally awarded to Sanford Burnham Prebys. The grant proposal was co-written by Dr. Paula Checchi, (Program Manager for Recruitment, Outreach and Achievement, OETIS), Dr. Alessandra Sacco, (Professor and Vice Dean), and Dr. Evan Snyder, (Professor and Stem Cell Research Center Director) and establishes a collaboration between Sanford Burnham Prebys and the MESA Alliance, a statewide model for intersegmental regional collaboration in mathematics, engineering and science education for economically disadvantaged and underrepresented student populations. The five-year award will support paid internships for 57 students from these groups. Beginning in June 2022, SPARK-SBP will host California high schoolers selected from across San Diego and Imperial Valley, offering an invaluable opportunity to gain hands-on training in biomedical research. The SPARK-SBP program will be open to select applicants who represent the diversity of California's population. Once selected, SPARK students will spend six weeks learning about stem cells and regenerative medicine and will conduct a six-week mentored research internship under the guidance of a Sanford Burnham Prebys faculty member. At the end of their program, trainees will get to show off their hard work by presenting their research at the SPARK annual conference.

To learn more about SPARK, check out: the STEM Cellar, the official blog of CIRM

CIRM's YouTube video featuring past SPARK recipients