Scholarly Projects Program

INTRODUCTION
The Scholarly Projects Program (SPP) links medical students with faculty mentors to explore an area of medical practice or research with the aim of creating new knowledge. We encourage students to select a project that allows for immersion with the hope that this experience will consolidate the learning developed through Fundamentals and the Major Clinical Year into an individual professional passion. All students are required to complete a scholarly project, though students who complete a second academic degree during medical school may elect to apply their dual-degree experience in fulfillment of the scholarly project requirement. In structuring their scholarly projects, students may select from five available tracks of study. Each track is directed by a senior faculty member who will assist students in identifying mentors and structuring their project proposals.

• Basic and Translational Science
• Clinical Research
• Global Health and Population Health
• Medical Education
• Narrative and Social Medicine

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The SPP aims to develop students’ abilities in the following School-Wide Learning Objectives: (i) generate hypotheses, exhibit curiosity and develop a pattern of life-long learning and (ii) participate in the process through which new knowledge is generated, and assess the importance of novel ideas. Specifically, students completing the SPP will have the opportunity to ask innovative questions, deepen their experience of medicine and contribute to the academic environment.

COMPONENTS
The major steps of preparation for the scholarly project include track selection, mentor selection and development of the project proposal. In selecting a track, we encourage students to reflect on their individual experiences, interests and passions and seek consultation from potential mentors and SPP Faculty as early in their medical training as they wish. Students in the SPP dedicate four to ten months of full-time effort on their project during Differentiation & Integration (D&I). SPP work, including the students’ investigation and involvement in any track-specific didactics, may be started as early as the beginning of D&I and must be completed by the end of March prior to graduation. The requirement may be fulfilled contiguously or in divided periods, subject to review by the Track Director. At the conclusion of the scholarly project, each student is required to prepare and submit a written summary of their work, the Capstone Requirement, according to the specifications set by their Track Director. Submitted work will be reviewed and evaluated by SPP faculty according to Track-specific standards.

Students have the option of completing extended scholarly projects of up to ten months through the “Scholarly Projects Plus” program. Students wishing to complete projects longer than four months will need to meet with the Director of the Scholarly Projects Program to develop an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) as part of their project review process which must then be approved by the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

MENTORSHIP
In the context of the SPP, mentors provide supervision and guidance to medical students in planning, executing and recording their scholarly work. The role of the mentor evolves with the project and with the student. Students in the SPP take responsibility for setting a focused agenda for supervision, scheduling meetings, collaboratively setting goals and reflecting on their progress according to proposed plan, asking for help when they need it and preparing required documentation in a timely manner. For more information on mentoring, please see Sambunjak et al.

Mentoring relationships in the SPP will have several phases:

• Introduction and exploration. In the first phase of mentorship, the potential mentor meets with the student to identify opportunities for collaboration and to determine whether the pair’s interests, resources and interpersonal styles are compatible. If so, the pair will review the mentorship agreement. If not, the faculty member will refer the student back to the Track Director and, if applicable, to colleagues who may be a better fit for the student.
• Planning. In the second phase of mentorship, the selected mentor guides the student in preparing a Project Proposal that balances ambition with practicality. Scholarly projects should be innovative but may leverage existing resources (i.e., projects and initiatives already underway) to optimize the likelihood that in four months the student will acheive the project goals.
• Execution. In the third phase of mentorship, the mentor oversees the student’s work along the proposed trajectory. The student and mentor are expected to meet weekly to discuss the project. As unexpected problems or opportunities arise, the student and mentor will continually revise the plan for the remainder of the project.
• Completion. In the final phase of mentorship, the mentor will guide the student in preparing the Capstone Requirement according to Track-specific standards. The mentor will also submit a Final Evaluation of the student’s work, at which time the mentor will be compensated for their contribution.

Approaches to Finding a Mentor

Divisional and Departmental Websites

Every division and department at the medical center has a website with a list of faculty, and most provide a list of research interests. If you have a general idea of an area that you might be interested in, spend some time going through the specific areas of focus for each individual faculty member. Be mindful that some faculty have large, well-funded research operations, with research coordinators and research residents and fellows, while other faculty members do research as a supplement to a primarily clinical career.  Both scenarios may yield a highly successful mentor-mentee collaboration, but be sure to understand in advance what resources will be available to you.  Finally, don’t be narrow in your search.  Do not forget to consider faculty in School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the Nursing School and the Morningside campus.

Review the webpages of individuals whose work interests you. Note that these may not be up to date. Sites like PubMed can give you a better sense of recent publications. CUIMC’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research also tracks faculty grants, so you can see what a particular faculty member is working on currently. You can link to their website here: Irving Institute

MILESTONES
Each student completing a scholarly project will submit documentation of track declaration, project proposal, progress update and a final report. In addition, those student whose projects require funding are eligible for limited expense reimbursement. Mentors will receive a stipend for their contribution at the conclusion of the project.

• Mentor Identification – due when registering for your first month of the scholarly project
• Track Declaration – due when registering for your first month of the scholarly project
• Project Proposal – due at the end of the second week of your first month of the scholarly project
• Progress Report – due at end of the second month of the scholarly project
• Capstone Report and Poster– due at conclusion of the last month of the scholarly project

CONTACT

• Utpal Pajvani, MD, PhD Dr. Pavani is an Associate Professor of Medicine
  in the Division of Endocrinology and the Director of the Scholarly Projects Program.