BUMC Education, Advising & Mentoring in STEM (BEAMS)


OUR VISION

To recruit, develop, and retain underrepresented (UR) youth* from Boston and other areas of Massachusetts in post-secondary STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) education in an ongoing effort to diversify the healthcare work force.

*racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse youth

OUR GOALS

  • Provide career exploration and mentoring in STEMM and healthcare professions for UR students (high-school, undergraduate, and post-graduate).
  • Increase the number of UR students entering college and choosing STEMM majors.
  • Increase the number of UR individuals in STEMM and healthcare work force.

WHO WE ARE

BEAMS is a pipeline program created by the Department of Medical Sciences & Education with three inter-related student levels: high school, undergraduate, and post-graduate.  Between 2017 and 2020, we partnered with the Boston Area Health Education Center (BAHEC). In 2021, BEAMS enlarged its scope and is now reaching out to all Boston Public School (BPS) students to provide career exploration and mentoring for all high-school students attending BPS in grades 9 through 12. BEAMS provides programming by collaboration with faculty and students from the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS). BEAMS also provides programming by collaboration with students in the BU Kilachand Honors College. In addition, BEAMS has partnered with the Pre-Health Programs at BU College of Arts & Sciences and the College Access & Student Success Office at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, in our efforts to create bridges between high-school students and undergraduate students as well as bridges between undergraduate students and post-graduate students.

WHAT WE DO

On-going High-School Programming: BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

  • Through BEAMS, we are offering BUMC-MedSci Program (MSP), virtual programming with innovative sessions that are focused on medicine and basics science research with the aim of sparking interest among high-school students in health-care careers. This program will be open to any student currently enrolled in any BPS high school. Instructors for all sessions will be medical students and graduate students, and there will be opportunity for longitudinal mentoring. For more information about an upcoming program, the application portal will be found here. 
  • FALL & SPRING VIRTUAL SESSIONS: We run a virtual program on 5-6 Saturdays in the fall (between October and Thanksgiving) that focuses on general medical topics and a virtual program on 5-6 Saturdays in the spring (between February and April school vacations) that focuses on global and public health issues.
  • SUMMER IN-PERSON SESSION: We run MSP in the summer as an in-person 2-week program on the BU Medical Campus in Summer with experiential learning in topics such as surgery, anesthesiology, and neuroanatomy.

         

Previous High-School Programming: BAHEC

           

          Undergraduate Programming: CRC

           

          Post-Graduate Programming: BUMC

           

          CONTACT

          Maura Kelley, MD, and Elaine Lee, PhD, BEAMS Committee Leaders