Higher Personal Growth Research Articles

MEDPREP--30 years of making a difference.

The Medical/Dental Education Preparatory Program (MEDPREP) of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has served over 1000 educationally or economically disadvantaged students since its inception in 1972. Seventy-eight percent of the former students (95% of the current students) are members of AAMC-defined underrepresented minority groups (URMs). Over the course of its 30-year history, 68% of the students have been accepted to professional schools, with 92% being accepted to medical schools and attending 90 different medical schools in the country. Of those accepted to professional schools, 87% have graduated or are expected to graduate. MEDPREP has had this impact on the profession by staying true to its original mission, assisting minority students and other students with disadvantaged backgrounds to prepare for admission and success in medical school. MEDPREP is an environment of high expectations, teamwork, personal growth, and opportunities to achieve goals. Students are served by an advisor who helps structure an individualized curriculum designed to develop a knowledge base and learning and reasoning skills. The success of the program is due to the school's commitment and support, the faculty who serve the students, and the sacrifice and hard work of the MEDPREP students.

Motivation and Information System Professionals

Uses the job characteristics theory and additional research to measure the impact of growth needs, group interaction, advanced technology, change acceptance and the motivating potential of jobs in the IS profession. Specifically, IS maintenance professionals were compared with IS development professionals in a large midwestern organization in a study in which 208 IS professionals from four maintenance and development groups participated. Find a significant difference between IS developers and IS maintenance personnel in growth needs, advance technology strength and change acceptance. The motivating potential of jobs and group interaction strength were found not to be significant. The findings suggest that IS developers accept changes more readily than IS maintenance personnel. Thus, subgroups in the IS profession react differently to change. Advance technology will benefit IS developers more than IS maintenance personnel, suggesting that advanced technology should be given to the system developers first. IS developers respond more positively to positions which provide an opportunity to stretch their abilities, providing higher personal growth. This research could be used by practitioners and academics to manage the workforce of the future and to add to the database on motivation.