Apply Today for the Short Course on MARS 2025

Join us May 21-23, 2025 at the Roberts Center for Pediatric Research in Philadelphia for the Short Course on Multilingual Approaches to Research Studies (MARS). 

Now in its fourth year, this hands-on, interactive training provides researchers with the sensitivity, skills, and knowledge to better recruit and engage children, youth or families who prefer a language other than English in health research. 

Hosted by PolicyLab faculty and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) team members, the Short Course on MARS features in-person sessions comprising of lectures, case studies, small group work, and consultations. 

Hear more from course leadership about the benefits of MARS and what attendees can hope to learn in this video.  

APPLY HERE.

Course topics include:  

  • Best practices and advanced skills for working with interpreters for research 
  • Written translation protocols for all types of study documents 
  • Language-related requirements for all phases of a research project 
  • Design and management of a multilingual study 

This course is tailored to graduate, postdoctoral, early career, and senior investigators. It will also support career development for multilingual investigators from underrepresented backgrounds by providing training to leverage language skills for multilingual research and grant-seeking. 

The course is geared toward disciplines including but not limited to public health, nursing, psychiatry, psychology, pediatrics and the social sciences. Bilingual/bicultural applicants are strongly encouraged to apply; however, proficiency in languages other than English is not a course requirement. 

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Scholarships will be offered to offset financial hardship associated with course fees, travel, child care and/or assistive technology. For more information on the MARS short course, please contact ShortCourseonMARS@chop.edu. 

APPLY HERE.

Hear from alumni on their takeaways from the course in these blog posts from 2023 and 2024.  

Course Leadership –  

  • Priscilla Ortiz, PhD, CMI-Spanish (Language Services, CHOP) is a certified health care interpreter, language access administrator, interpreting studies researcher and interpreter educator with research training in applied linguistics. 
  • Robert Schrauf, PhD (Penn State University) is a linguist and anthropologist who conducts cross-cultural research and teaches courses in multilingual data collection to doctoral students in the social sciences, education and applied linguistics. 
  • Katherine Yun, MD, MHS (PolicyLab, CHOP) is a health disparities researcher and pediatrician with expertise in multilingual community-based participatory research. 
  • Nadège U. Mudenge (PolicyLab, CHOP) is a clinical research coordinator whose expertise includes outreach and engagement with refugee communities. 

This short course is presented by Language Services, Clinical Futures and PolicyLab at CHOP and Penn State University Applied Linguistics, and is funded by NICHD (R25HD101359). 

For updates on MARS offerings, subscribe here. 

Interested in learning more about PolicyLab’s emphasis on achieving health equity for all? Explore our Health Equity portfolio here and read more about a PolicyLab-funded project looking to identify best practices to conduct research that aims to reverse long-standing trends in scientific racism.