Students and professionalism: A perfect marriage

By John Tyler

In 1995, Timothy Denning was an undergraduate at Texas A&M in College Station. It was during that summer that a stint in Galveston changed his life. Here for a 10-week summer course at UTMB, he found the love of his life, a new career path and an important glimpse into the world of science that most undergraduates don’t have the opportunity to experience.

Denning came to UTMB after being accepted into the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences’ annual Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP). The program brings some of the nation’s top science students to the university for an intensive look into the biomedical research environment—including issues of professionalism and ethics in and out of the laboratory. Many of these students will eventually study full time at UTMB. Denning is one of them.

“I really think the program is a valuable experience,” said Denning, now in his fourth year in the GSBS. “Since you don’t have much exposure to in-depth scientific research as an undergraduate, many of the concepts like ethics and professionalism aren’t really taught at that level.”

Advanced training was not all Denning walked away with. He also met his future wife, Gabriela Marcano, then a molecular biology major at the Florida Institute of Technology. Because of the introduction to scientific research and the principles he learned during SURP, Denning chose to pursue the GSBS’s microbiology and immunology program instead of his initial plan of medical school. His wife picked UTMB for her graduate studies as well.

Attracting the nation’s top students to the UTMB graduate school is a major part of the program’s purpose. “The professionalism training students receive is so important to their development,” said Dr. David Niesel, ad interim chair of microbiology and immunology, vice dean of the GSBS and member of UTMB’s professionalism board . Training in research ethics and professionalism is a key component in the early experiences of graduate students at UTMB. “When students are getting involved with advanced training, they really need to know the type of behavior that is expected of them. This is not something they should e a rn by osmosis. They should be given a road map for these behaviors and be held accountable for them.”

Dr. Golda Leonard, associate dean of the graduate school and who oversees SURP, said a successful component of last year’s program was the introduction of an ethics, professionalism and laboratory etiquette panel discussion conducted solely by graduate students—with no faculty invited. Focusing on subjects such as how to treat others in the lab, confidentiality and data management, the panel let the visiting undergraduates hear exemplary graduate students share their views on those issues.

“ We chose to have the panel led by graduate students because it would be more conducive to a candid discussion,” Leonard said. “We wanted to present these graduate students as role models the younger students could emulate. It worked extremely well.”

As a graduate student, Denning has had the opportunity to take on a leadership role. He spoke at the graduate school’s Community of Scholars program in August. Held during orientation, Scholars, similar to the White Coat ceremony for those attending medical school, requires that every incoming student initiate his or her studies by learning and stating a list of principles and a code of conduct. These principles and the code govern the students for the remainder of their time at UTMB, and ideally, throughout their careers.

“We communicate with them early on that by pursuing a graduate degree they now belong to a very professional and prestigious group—something we call the Community of Scholars,” Niesel said. “We are trying to add a level of understanding that they are now among Nobel laureates, and all the scientists on campus. This is very significant time in their lives, and what comes with it is an accountability for their actions.”

Denning’s presentation, “A View From Within,” gave new students a look at what life in an advanced-training environment is like. “Community of Scholars is another great way the school prepares incoming students for the challenges they will face,” he said. “My presentation was really a student perspective on what I’d have liked to have heard coming in.”

In addition to the other initiatives used by the GSBS to encourage students to consider their behavior, the school offers a “Mini-Ethics Panel Discussion” during the first month of class. School officials present students with cases that pose ethical dilemmas. The students then are led in a discussion on how the problem could have been avoided, and how they would have conducted themselves in a similar situation.

In March, the GSBS will kick off a new collaboration with the University of Houston–Clear Lake. Offering an Advanced Business Management program for students and post-docs, the 36-hour course will provide the strategic management skills necessary to deal with the rigors of running a lab. “We really don’t spend any time training our students how to manage people or the finances involved with running a laboratory,” Niesel said. “This program will allow us to do that.”