It was a special summer of learning for the 120 area high school and college students who participated in Mount Sinai’s Center for Excellence in Youth Education’s (CEYE) research courses, clinical internships, and career preparatory programs. Established in 1975, CEYE aims to increase the presence of historically underrepresented groups in science and medicine by providing students with a wide variety of opportunities for career exploration. CEYE is housed in the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
More than 10,000 students have taken part in year-round and summer CEYE programs over the past 40 years, one of the longest sustaining educational pipeline initiatives in the nation. Each year, they are mentored by more than 100 Mount Sinai physicians, researchers, allied health professionals, and postdoctoral trainees.
To mark its fortieth anniversary this year, CEYE launched The Lloyd Sherman Scholars Science Research Preparation and Enrichment Program to develop biomedical lab-based skills among African American and Latino male high school students. “This was named in honor of CEYE’s founding director, the late Lloyd Sherman, EdD, and is a direct response to the significant underrepresentation of African American and Latino males in science,” says Gary Butts, MD. Dr. Butts is Director of the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs and leads the Mount Sinai Health System’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The program is a partnership with the Eagle Academy Foundation, which supports a network of six all-male public schools in New York City and Newark, N.J., and provides a rigorous college-prep program for inner-city young men.
On one summer morning, 10 inaugural scholars, with requisite white lab coats, were busy studying a core technique—which is used to detect the presence of a specific protein within a complex protein mixture—when Dr. Butts brought a visitor to the classroom: Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System.
“We want you to have a great experience here—use it as a stepping-stone to careers in science and medicine,” Dr. Charney told the students. “You can accomplish anything you want and become a person who makes a difference.”
Many graduates of the CEYE program have attended medical school, including Nicole Pacheco, a second-year student at Icahn School of Medicine and a current CEYE student volunteer instructor. Ms. Pacheco recently guided participants through a fish dissection in the summer research course, “Introduction to Environmental Health: Zebrafish Toxicology,” in which students evaluated the effects of toxicants on a living organism. Ms. Pacheco looked on as students dissected a four-pound fish, ready to help: “Watch your fingers,” she told one group, as they handled scalpels, and she instructed them how to cut safely through bone.
One student she helped, Elijah Jackman, later said he found the overall course “phenomenal” and noted, “It showed me the large number of career choices in the science community, and how interesting it can be.” Ms. Pacheco reflected on her own experiences as a CEYE student, “It truly was a life-changing experience that offered a clear roadmap on how to pursue medicine as a career.”