High School and College Students Receive Hands-On Training in Biotechnology
 n an increasingly
diverse state such as California, research shows that ethnic minority groups are not well
represented in the health care professions. Research also that shows cultural competency
is an important factor in determining the quality of health care a client will receive.
   In an effort to help increase diversity in the health
professions, TCWF provided a grant of $130,000 to Berkeley Biotechnology Education Inc.
(BBEI) for a program that prepares high school juniors and seniors for skilled technical
positions in the booming biotechnology industry. The students enrolled in the program come
from ethnic and economic groups that are underrepresented in the health sciences.
TCWF funding will help provide training for nearly 300 high school and community
college students, as well as about 80 paid internships in laboratory settings with
bioscience companies, hospitals, nonprofit clinics, county health facilities and public
agencies. BBEI hopes to expand the biotechnology training model to other careers in the
health field.
"When I reviewed BBEI’s proposal, I found a unique training program —
one that targets at-risk minority youth and combines a hands-on curriculum designed to get
them interested in the sciences and health-related professions with a guaranteed,
well-paid summer internship," said Ruth Holton, TCWF senior program officer.
Among the skills taught in BBEI’s classes are setting up and maintaining lab
equipment, conducting routine tests, supporting researchers and tracking data.
The BBEI program also benefits teachers in the two participating high schools —
Fremont High in Oakland and Berkeley High — who work closely with professionals in
the biotechnology industry to design courses that prepare students for the work they will
do as interns and later as employees.
 Among the more than 30
organizations that hire BBEI students and graduates are founding partner Bayer
Corporation, along with Chiron Corporation, Genentech, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Kaiser
Permanente, Highland Hospital, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the
California State Crime Laboratory.
The program has had an impressive success rate during its seven-year history, said
BBEI’s Executive Director Cheryl Franklin-Golden. By the end of the 1998-99 school
year, more than 300 BBEI high school students had completed summer internships in the
industry, and all of the students who began the program in the 11th grade graduated from
high school. Almost all of the students who completed the two-year high school curriculum
went on to a third year at the college level at Biotech Career Institute of Laney College
in Oakland to earn a professional certificate, or enrolled in a two- or four-year college.
"All program graduates received employment offers within 30 days of graduation and
all are still employed full time in the bioscience industry in skilled positions or
enrolled in school full time," Franklin-Golden said. "Our students don’t
have to consider low-pay, dead-end jobs. They have a future."
"And the health care industry also benefits from the program as people with
diverse ethnic backgrounds enter the health professions," TCWF’s Holton added.
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