• EVOLving Education: Students, Staff Give Back
• Master of Science in Biostastistics

EVOLving Education: Students, Staff Give Back

GUMC update - January 17, 2006

For 9-year old Davon Prince, Thursday night is something he looks forward to all week. That's when he and his younger brother board a school bus in Southeast Washington headed for GUMC. After his tutor, Ethan Berstein, a graduate student in the special master?s program (SMP) in physiology and biophysics, meets him at the bus stop, they sit in the hallway of the Preclinical Science building and work on math homework together for an hour.  

"I like tutoring because it's fun to come to a college and my tutor helps me understand my homework better," said Prince, one of 84 children who participate in the EVOL tutoring program every week at GUMC. The program brings students ages 5-18 to campus for one-on-one tutoring with SMP graduate students. The program (which stands for Education + Volunteers) was started six years ago by SMP coordinator Aureller Cabiness, who has worked at the Medical Center for 30 years.

"Georgetown has given me so much over the years. This is my way of paying it back," Cabiness said. "Education really can open minds and make a difference in their lives."

Cabiness says the tutoring program has helped students gain confidence and improve their grades. She said she's especially proud of the two students in the program who have graduated from high school. But the best part of the program for her has been watching the relationships between the tutors and the children develop.  

"I've seen the EVOL program grow over the last six years," said Vassilios Papadopoulos, BGRO director. "This kind of outreach is central to our mission and highlights the commitment of our faculty, students and staff to making a difference in the community."  

Larry Jordan is the pastor of Maple Springs Valley Church, which supports the tutoring program by providing the buses that transport the children to GUMC. "We're so grateful to Georgetown for helping our young people grow and advance," he said. "The program makes every child feel important." For more information on the EVOL program, contact Cabiness at cabinesa@georgetown.edu or 687-1179.

Master of Science in Biostastistics

Blue & Gray - January 9, 2006

The new Master of Science in Biostatistics will be a three-semester program in which students will learn how to apply their biostatistics expertise to the fields of epidemiology and bioinformatics.  The program plans to enroll about 30 students within three years, with its first class enrolling in Fall 2006.

"Today's life science research demands a wider synthesis of skills from multiple disciplines than ever before," said Francoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch, chair of the department.  "This program will help students focus on data-analysis and informatics tools and use databases for broad-based biomedical information.  This kind of education is essential to the interdisciplinary teams that will be required to address both current and future issues in the health sciences." 

By providing integrated training in computational, quantitative and biomedical sciences, this program will prepare students to enter a variety of career fields and graduate degree programs.  Alumni of the program may go on to hold research positions in academic research centers, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology industries, or begin a doctorate program in biostatistics, bioinformatics, biomathematics, epidemiology or other biomedical programs.

Georgetown University
Office of Biomedical Graduate Education
3900 Reservoir Rd, NW, Med-Dent, Room NE 303
Box 571411
Washington, DC 20057

updated 1/25/2006