Grants
help send students to grad school
By Tina Page
On-line Forty-Niner
Psychology
professor John Jung has received two grants
to continue his efforts to assist minority
students in pursuing graduate studies in
psychology for another five years.
The National Institute of Mental Health
grants were awarded for the psychology department’s
Career Opportunities Research Program in
the amount of $188,619 for the first five
years and the Career Opportunities in Research
Education and Training for $37,800 in first-year
funding, both directed by Jung.
“The COR program’s mission is to help increase
the number of underrepresented groups into
the profession of mental health researchers,”
Jung said. “We need to change the focus
of the profession so that minorities will
be represented and their needs will be researched.”
The COR program began at Cal State Long
Beach in 1981 and has successfully produced
23 students who received their doctorates,
Jung said. COR currently supports nine students.
The program provides stipends for each student,
an opportunity to attend the national COR
conference and other support, such as working
one on one with faculty members on the students’
research. The main goal of the program is
to prepare the students for the rigors of
graduate school. COR students also provide
guidance for the CORET students.
The CORET program has been in place for
six years and involves six honors students
from Millikan and Wilson high schools in
Long Beach. These minority students are
selected because of their interest in the
social sciences. They attend a six-week
summer program after the completion of their
sophomore year and visit Cal State Long
Beach during their junior year to “observe
and participate in ongoing faculty directed
research projects,” the press release announcing
the grant funding said.
April Thames, a senior psychology major
and COR participant, plans on becoming a
clinical neuropsychologist. Thames said
she would like to work in a research setting
such as a hospital or a university — something
she said could not complete without having
been part of the COR program.
“I did not know anything about graduate
school and how to apply and prepare myself
before this program,” Thames said. “Now
I feel completely confident and prepared
to enter graduate training. I think this
program is very beneficial for undergraduate
minority students.”
The number of minority individuals who attain
doctorates and other advanced degrees in
biomedical or behavioral and clinical disciplines
remains disproportionately low in comparison
to minority researchers in other groups,
according to the National Institute of Mental
Health’s Web site.
Bonnie Auyeung, senior psychology major
and COR student, plans to become a professor.
Auyeung stresses the importance of providing
opportunities to minority students.
“[COR] gives people who would have few opportunities
otherwise to get the experience and preparation
that they need in order to succeed in graduate
school,” Auyeung said. “The program has
helped me to problem solve, ask the right
questions and come into contact with faculty
mentors that help us along the way.”
Jung received his doctorate from Northwestern
University in experimental psychology and
has been teaching at CSULB since 1962.
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