CARE Scholars FAQ
What is the Program Timeline?
The CARE Scholars Program is a one-year immersive research program focused on training the next generation of leaders in Asian health research. This includes 3 distinct phases, with Spring, Summer and Fall/Winter quarters.
- Spring Quarter (April through mid-June):
This includes the Spring Innovation Series, 2-hour evening weekly seminars, focused on research methods, an introduction to AANHPI health, and innovation seminars to broaden perspectives on biomedical research and research impact.
- Summer Quarter (mid-June through mid-August):
This phase of the Program is 9 weeks, including a 2-week research foundations bootcamp and 7-week research sprint to complete the majority of your research projects, capped with the CARE Summer Research Symposium.
- Fall through Next Summer Quarters (mid-August through June of following year):
The focus of these quarters is professional development, finishing your projects, and submitting manuscripts for publication. This includes periodic seminars on health communication, including preparing for regional/national presentations; writing scientific manuscripts, editorials, narratives, curricula; and professional development.
Will the entire CARE Scholars program be virtual, including the 9-week summer immersion?
Stanford CARE Scholars is conducted entirely virtually, via Zoom. While we love in-person education, during the pandemic we found that we could build an amazing community virtually, and also help our Scholars achieve their professional goals. Keeping Stanford CARE Scholars virtual helps us ensure that we keep costs low and recruit the most diverse student teams from all over the world.
Since this is a year-long program, will we still be able to take courses at our university during the academic year?
Absolutely! While the Summer Quarter is a full-time commitment for the 9 weeks over the summer, the year-long component is very flexible, and requires a shorter time commitment. Most of our Scholars are still full-time university students at the end of the program.
Please tell me more about the topics of the research projects that Scholars will cover.
We offer a variety of subject areas within health and medicine. Each year, our specific research topics vary, since we want to answer important questions addressing important gaps in disparities in Asian health. Topics vary depending on what has been published recently, and what additional important research questions we need to answer. Healthcare research is dynamic, and the topics, research questions and datasets will vary. Some data sets that we have previously used include: mortality and natality data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, among others.
Can Scholars choose their interested area/topics?
We try to prioritize student interest in the construction of the research teams. For that reason, once Scholars are accepted and enrolled into the program, they complete an interest form that ranks the potential available topics for the summer. These topics might vary from the time of the survey to the Summer Quarter – depending on the state of the field and available datasets.
What are the Scholar Expectations?
Science is meaningful only when it is shared and can impact practice. As such, Stanford CARE Scholars are expected to write and submit high quality manuscripts for publication within a year, and to work on revisions until the manuscripts are published (which usually takes 12-18 months). Additionally, Scholars are expected to present their research at regional and national meetings in advance of publication.
A major goal of our program is to help our young Scholars develop their emerging professional identity as leaders and researchers. Professionals are expected to behave in an ethical, responsible manner, to show up, to be on time, and to be collaborative.
How can we succeed in the application process?
Let us know why you care about Asian health and/or Global Health. What do you want to do with your career (or your best guess at this life stage)? Why do you want to spend your time with us? What have you done that shows us that you would be a great teammate, a quick learner, and can follow through? Be specific. We always appreciate seeing a thoughtful application with a clear purpose and signal that you are reliable, excellent collaborator. Prior research experience is helpful, but not required.
Are any scholarships available?
We cannot guarantee a scholarship subsidy for any CARE Scholar. At times, we have had partial scholarships from private donors, institutions, or academic centers. However, these scholarships are generally not known in advance, and are reserved for Scholars with significant demonstrated financial need (Pell grant awardees, etc). If scholarships become available, we will advertise in an appropriate timeframe with qualification criteria.