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 nd then there’s the School of Pharmacy’s STAR program, arguably the most successful collaboration be-tween the university and Bravo so far. Directed by Roberta Diaz Brinton, an associate professor of molecular pharmacology and toxicology in the school, the USC Science, Technology And Research Program gives inner-city junior and senior high schoolstudents a chance to join a basic-science research team at USC’s two campuses. As an integral part of their high school curriculum, STAR students from Bravo participate in faculty research and also conduct their own independent research projects. Currently, more than 50 re-search labs at both USC campuses are active in the effort, which began in the late 1980s.
For years the STAR program has been funded by the Maryland-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additional support currently comes from the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, which sponsors STAR students during the summer months while they do independent research at USC.
Bravo and STAR student Terry Le works to find an Alzheimer's preventative in molecular pharmacologist Roberta Diaz Brinton's lab.
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“The program really is amazing,” says Hernandez, with understandable pride. “It’s designed for students who are truly interested in research and who have at least a solid basic background
in science. They are placed in a lab and work directly with professors and graduate students.”
These mentors range from senior to junior faculty members. They include distinguished members of the National Academy of Science and institute directors. (A list of the participating USC scientists can be found on the Web at www.usc.edu/hsc.USCSTAR)
“STAR mentors are highly successful USC scientists who provide students from Bravo and other schools with an environment that encourages and supports excellence, imagination and hard work,” says Brinton – herself a leading scientist in molecular pharmacology who is currently engaged in groundbreaking research on estrogen’s potential for preventing Alzheimer’s disease among women..
“The mentors provide role models of these traits,” she says. “They are genuinely enthusiastic about sharing their love of science and the process of discovery with their STAR students.”
mong the STAR students in Brinton’s own lab are Wendy Marrufo and Terry Le. They are part of the incoming STAR class of 1999-2000, and this past summer they worked an average of seven hours a day, five days a week. During the school year they are in the lab every afternoon and, when necessary, on weekends.
“I really enjoy science, doing research and learning from Dr. Brinton and the other researchers here,” says Marrufo, currently in her senior year at Bravo.
“It’s not like working at a job – or even being in school. It’s what I’d like to do the rest of my life.”
Brinton
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“This is a chance to not only learn science but to learn who I can be,” adds Le. “To know that I can contribute to the possible prevention of Alzheimer’s disease would make being a scientist a worthwhile career for me.”
No less satisfying to Marrufo, Le and other STAR students is the fact that their scientific contributions are fully acknowledged in the list of more than 90 publications and abstracts to which their names are legitimately attached. Distinctly unlike the titles of standard high school term papers, the list reads like the table of contents in a distinguished research periodical.
STAR-student co-authors have helped research and write such peer-reviewed pieces as “Tumor Suppressor Function of a Dominant Negative Retinoic Acid Receptor Mutant,” “Hyperbaric Exposure: A Novel Tool for Investigating Allosteric Coupling Pathways in GABAA Receptors,” “Apoptosis and DNA Fragmentation by tBuOOH in the Brain,” and “Vasopressin-Induced Neurotrophism in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons.”
Similarly, some of their science fair projects go by titles like “Second Messengers in Integrin Promoted Neurite Outgrowth in PC12 Cells” and “Effects of Ischemia-Reperfusian Injury on Alveolar Epithelial Sodium Flux.”
Given their ability to produce such heady work, virtually 100 percent of STAR students go on to college, the majority attending prestigious universities such as USC, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Columbia and University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Davis and Irvine. Many receive academic scholarships to these institutions.
“Society at large benefits from having the talents of exceptional and highly motivated young people from disadvantaged backgrounds nurtured and utilized for the common good,” says Brinton.
“The STAR program also benefits society at large by preparing young people of many ethnic groups, economic backgrounds and both genders to bring their unique experiences and outlooks to the process of scientific discovery. Questions, and therefore answers, that would never occur to one person will be thought of by another. The larger and more diverse the pool of scientists, the greater the likelihood that a solution to the problems we face as a multi-ethnic society will be found.”
 rinton believes a primary factor in STAR’s success is the dedication of the Bravo Science Educator, a position first held by Dorothy Moote, who started the program with faculty member Paul Hochstein of the USC School of Pharmacy. The current holder, Sharon Stewart, bounces the credit back to USC, praising the faculty researchers who open their labs to
Bravo students, becoming their teachers and role models.
“These individuals are dedicated and exceptional scientists who year after year welcome STAR students on their research team and train them in the discipline of scientific discovery,” says Stewart.
“Each of the STAR mentors is truly a gift. They are the reason that the program has continued now for well over a decade.”
For most of that time, Brinton has been at the helm and has no immediate plans to reduce her commitment.
“Professionally, as an educator and a scientist, the STAR program has been a thrilling experience,” says Brinton.
“To see the rapid evolution of a young person who begins knowing very little about the process of scientific discovery and who then evolves into a poised young investigator who can execute demanding experiments, who can effectively communicate about complex technologies and scientific data and who can handle very tough questions – and as the STAR students will tell you, those questions are usually mine – is a wonderful experience.”
No less thrilling, Brinton says, is the chance to make a big difference in the lives of people from working class or poor families, for whom the idea of be-coming a scientist ranges from remote to non-existent.
“I like opening that door of opportunity and inviting these young people into the world of science, to see the wonder that I have discovered,” she says. “The experience of seeing young people from an inner-city high school in East Los Angeles truly reach the stars is enormously gratifying.”
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