Minnesota Advancing Science and Cancer Education Discoveries (M-ASCEND)

About the Program

The Minnesota Advancing Science and Cancer Education Discoveries (M-ASCEND) is a community-framed program that aims to support and enhance cancer-focused research through academic persistence. M-ASCEND includes engaging high schoolers during the academic year, a summer internship and service learning component for high schoolers, an undergraduate summer internship, and professional development opportunities for teachers. The program focuses on:

Providing high school students a scaffolded research lab experience coupled with service-learning opportunities alongside community mentors. Including a paid summer internship that offers structured, hands-on experience in community-based participatory research (CBPR).
Pairing undergraduate interns with researchers to provide a mentored research experience and experience with longitudinal community-based participatory research (CBPR).
Providing teachers with an intensive lab experience designed to support their priorities for building robust science curricula.

For 17 years, M-ASCEND has been at the forefront of facilitating fair and just cancer research along with mentored education at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Masonic Cancer Center (MCC) and Program in Health Disparities Research (PHDR). Through programming, the intent is to expand the career pathways for cancer-focused biomedical and behavioral scientists. At the same time, support their professional and academic progress towards a career in cancer research.

Learn more about each M-ASCEND opportunity:

High School Program

The M-ASCEND High School Program has two opportunities that focus on college readiness, mentorship, and cancer research and healthcare career pathways. Accepted students learn about cancer and cancer research through hands-on programming with University of Minnesota (UMN) faculty and staff.

Undergraduate Summer Internship

The 9-week internship is a paid, full-time position designed to give undergraduate students hands-on research experience, mentorship, and academic and professional development.

Teacher Summer Program

Deepen the science-focused skills of teachers in developing cancer-related curriculum materials for high school students, using evidence-based support and hands-on research lab experience.