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Chuck Lorre meets with Heidy Paniagua, center, and Andrea Lanz, who are participants in the Chuck Lorre Research Scholars Program. | Photo courtesy of CHLA
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The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation has pledged $10 million to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to support research education for under-represented high-school and college students, it was announced Tuesday.
Veteran television producer Chuck Lorre’s foundation has been supporting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since 2016, according to a statement from the hospital.
In recognition of the foundation’s gift, Children’s Hospital said it has created the Chuck Lorre Research Scholars Program, which welcomed its inaugural class in the summer of 2023. The program supports Los Angeles-area college students, including alumni from the Samuels Family Latino and African American High School Internship Program at CHLA.
“We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to ensure more under-resourced students have a leg up to fulfill their dreams,” Lorre said in the statement. “These programs have tremendous potential to shape the future of science and health care by creating a more diverse workforce.”
The Chuck Lorre Research Scholars each participate in 10 weeks of paid summer laboratory research after their freshman or sophomore years of college, either at their current university, at CHLA, or at a research institution of their choice, the hospital said. The students continue to receive mentorship and career guidance from the director of the program at Children’s Hospital during that time.
“In college, students can run into various challenges — a lack of financial support, guidance and opportunities to perform research in a laboratory — which leads to them dropping out of the science pipeline,” said Emil Bogenmann, director of the scholars program. “We’re focusing on bridging that gap, keeping them engaged and setting them up for success if they decide to go to graduate or medical school.”
Lorre has created some of the most popular programs of the last several decades, including “Mom,” “The Kominsky Method,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Young Sheldon,” and “The Big Bang Theory,” which focused on a group of young physicists.
“When students are fully immersed in research, they can suddenly imagine a future in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education) where they can pursue their dreams,” said Lorre. “That is what inspired me to establish this program.”
The scholars program broadens Lorre’s commitment to STEM education and supporting students who identify as an under-represented minority in their quest to become scientists or clinician-researchers, the hospital said.
“There are structural barriers to historically minoritized communities participating in a career in science,” said Mark Frey, director of the developmental biology and regenerative medicine research program at Children’s Hospital. “Giving these students tangible support is simply the right thing to do.”
