Mission and Vision
The Office for Access, Belonging, and Student Success is a vibrant community of scholars from around the globe. Our goal is to
- Promote the recruitment and retention of a talented pool of students with a broad range of lived experiences needed to advance scientific discovery. These experiences include those who are first generation in college, those with socioeconomic disadvantage, those with chosen experiences that generate a keen orientation to the needs of marginalized individuals and underserved communities, persons with disabilities, persons from under-resourced educational backgrounds, and those who have overcome significant hardship in pursuit of higher education.
- Ensure that all students have a genuine sense of belonging in the Weill Cornell Medicine community.
- Help students achieve their highest potential for scholarly excellence and career advancement.
- Engage and support community service and outreach both in medicine and science to underserved communities.
Outcomes Data
IMSD by the Numbers
Initially funded by the NIH/NIGMS, the Weill Cornell Graduate School with the first Initiative for Maximizing Student Development Program to increase the number of PhD students trained to conduct exceptional research and continue as leaders in biomedical research careers. Newly accepted Weill Cornell Graduate School (WCGS) PhD students apply to become IMSD fellows after April 15th of each year. Here are their accomplishments by the numbers:
- 100% of our IMSD fellows have presented at major scientific conferences.
- Our fellows have been first authors or co-authors on 30+ publications in scientific journals.
- Our fellows have been awarded prestigious graduate fellowships, including the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, NSF GRFP Fellowship, Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI) Fellowship, and American Society of Hematology (ASH) Minority Hematology Graduate Award.
- Our fellows are leaders, with 40% holding campus leadership positions as presidents, chairs, or leaders of our affinity groups or Executive Committees.
- Our fellows give back to the community. 63% of our IMSD Fellows (2022-2024) are involved in mentorship and outreach activities.
