Note: Emil Bogenmann, PhD, is Co-director of SC CTSI Education, Career Development, and Ethics.

A rigorous science program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aimed at encouraging minority students to pursue a career in the field received an endowment this month that should fund the program for years to come.

The Latino and African-American High School Internship Program selects 16 students each year from around Los Angeles County. Under the watch of professionals, they conduct their own research in laboratories at the hospital's Saban Research Institute.

The endowment, from longtime hospital supporters and philanthropists Lori and Ted Samuels, continues the couple's support of the program. They provided seed money to launch it in 2005. The exact amount of this month's endowment was not released.

The program will be renamed the Samuels Family Latino and African-American High School Internship Program. Dr. Emil Bogenmann, the program's founder and director, said the generous donation is essential to their mission.

"This gift makes it possible for our intern program to continue providing opportunities to local minority students for decades to come,” he said.

Read more at latimes.com.