# #MYHealth: Training the Next Generation of Health Scientists Through Participatory Research in Adolescent Health

> **NIH NIH R25** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $269,914

## Abstract

Project Summary. Despite decades of calls for increased diversity in the health services research workforce,
disparities continue to exist for many populations, including Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals, those
from low-income families, and first-generation college students. To increase representation of these historically
underrepresented (“underrepresented minority” or URM) populations, there is a critical need to develop
programs that strengthen their path toward health research careers. High school is a critically important time to
catalyze interest and rebuild engagement among URMs who may have previously felt excluded from science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. The overall objective of this proposal is to engage
9th, 10th, and 11th grade URM students in Southeastern Michigan in a community-based participatory research
program focused on adolescent health. Through the Michigan Youth Health (#MYHealth) program, we will train
URM students to be co-researchers who work alongside academic researchers, which will help them to
envision themselves as scientists capable of positively impacting their communities. Our three specific aims
are: 1) To promote URM high school students’ interest and ability to see themselves in STEM research careers
through a mentored summer research experience in adolescent health research. 2) To develop URM youths’
researcher identities, science self-efficacy, and scientific literacy by engaging students as co-researchers in
“Impact Projects” targeting academic, policy, community, and youth audiences. 3) To increase URM students’
leadership and teamwork self-efficacy, participatory research skills, and science persistence by engaging them
as “Peer Leaders” in summer and academic-year research programs. We will accomplish these aims by
engaging a new cohort of URM high school students during each year of the five-year award period.
Participants will complete up to three program components that become progressively more focused and
advanced. First, all participating students will complete a 10-day “Summer Launch” to introduce them to health
services research methodologies. Second, a subset of these students (selected based upon emerging interest
in research) to participate in 9-month virtual “Impact Projects” through which they will conduct their own
research on adolescent health topics and disseminate findings to diverse audiences. Third, in Years 2-5 an
additional subset of students (based on emerging research interest) will receive further training and mentorship
through “Peer Leader” opportunities in their second year of participation. The proposed #MYHealth program
will target core drivers of science persistence: interest in STEM research careers; researcher identity; self-
efficacy in science, leadership, and teamwork; and scientific literacy. Students will directly collaborate with and
be mentored by a diverse #MYHealth faculty that includes investigators, community advisors, scie...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10216729
- **Project number:** 1R25GM137361-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Melissa DeJonckheere
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $269,914
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10216729

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10216729, #MYHealth: Training the Next Generation of Health Scientists Through Participatory Research in Adolescent Health (1R25GM137361-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10216729. Licensed CC0.

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