Thomas Landefeld: Support for Minority and Community College Students

Thomas Landefeld, professor of biology, spoke on “Career Opportunities in the Biomedical Sciences; Considerations for Minority Students” and “Keys to Success for Diversity Recruitment” at Bluefield State College in Bluefield, W. Va., in October. Landefeld’s visit was sponsored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Minority Access to Research Careers (FASEB MARC) program.

“Only 6 percent of our doctors now are black, Hispanic and Native American,” he points out. “We have to have a better representation than we have now, to help the health disparities in diseases like diabetes and hypertension.”

Landefeld also co-presented a session titled “Community College Students: Why You are at ABRCMS and How You can Make the Most of Your Conference Experience” at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Austin in November.

“When community college students first started attending the conference, they were met with questions and comments like ‘Why are you at this meeting?’ and ‘Come back when you are in college,’” he says. “Many in society and academia think of community college students as remedial or low-achieving. This is of course not true at all as students choose community colleges for a number of reasons. Thus, changing the perceived stereotype is a major challenge. When I first placed Bridges students at Harbor UCLA, individuals at ABRCMS recognized the potential and strengths that these students represented. Community colleges represent the largest pool of minority students in the country, and organizations, institutions, and meetings, like ABRCMS, are beginning to embrace that fact.”

- Joanie Harmon