Cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality in the Commonwealth of Kentucky are among the highest in the nation. The University of Louisville Cancer Education Program recruits and motivates outstanding undergraduate and health professional students to pursue further training and careers in cancer research. The program consistently recruits the best and brightest undergraduate and health science professional students from the University of Louisville and prestigious universities across the country. An impressive number of University of Louisville faculty members among its many colleges and schools contribute to this program. The University of Louisville Cancer Education program has surpassed all of its five year goals. The renewal application proposes an aggressive plan to reach even higher goals over the next five years. We propose to accomplish the objectives described in our renewal proposal via completion of six aims 1) Recruit outstanding health professional and undergraduate students including target enrollment of students from groups underrepresented in cancer research; 2) Provide hands-on participation in cancer research through the development, completion, and presentation of cancer research projects under the mentorship of research-intensive faculty members of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center; 3) Enrich the student participation with professional development and cancer research training activities and research seminars; 4) Require student presentation of their cancer research project to faculty, judges, and fellow students at annual scientific conferences; 5) Motivate students to attend and present their cancer research project at regional and national scientific meetings; and 6) Evaluate student recruitment, participation, satisfaction, placement and other student outcomes against explicit benchmarks.

Project Narrative Cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality in the Commonwealth of Kentucky are among the highest in the nation. The objective of the University of Louisville Program Cancer Education Program is to recruit, train, and motivate outstanding undergraduate and professional students to engage and present an outstanding cancer research project and to pursue further training and careers in cancer research.