The Universities Network for Leadership Through Diversity (UN-LTD): Developing a Successful Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program for Broadening Participation in Science and Engineering

范德比尔特大学提出，联合国有限公司合作伙伴关系是通往博士学位和更高学位的创新途径，可以大大扩大代表性不足的少数民族在STEM领域的参与。UN-LTD的核心是非常成功的菲斯克-范德比尔特硕士到博士的桥梁项目，在这个项目中，学生在菲斯克获得硕士学位，作为进入范德比尔特博士项目的垫脚石。范德比尔特和菲斯克加入了特拉华州立大学（DSU）的AGEP。哥伦比亚大学和邻近的亨特学院将作为转移和复制该模式的独立试验场。UN-LTD的博士和教授之路强调博士学位授予机构的研究参与和教师的精心指导，以帮助学生跨越理想和机构转型。联合国有限公司的教育组成部分包括招聘、研究生培训和指导、研究实习、网络和专业发展，以及为下一阶段的STEM参与做准备。有了这笔计划补助金，他们将开发自己的项目，为全面的AGEP做准备。他们整个AGEP计划的目标是在这些学科中培养至少10倍于美国机构平均水平的少数族裔博士学位获得者，并将这一水平保持在稳定状态。联合国有限公司的三个目标是：1。扩展菲斯克-范德比尔特硕士到博士的桥梁项目，包括菲斯克和范德比尔特的所有核心STEM学科：物理学、天文学、材料科学、生物学、化学、数学、计算机科学和工程。与特拉华州立大学合作扩展桥梁项目。由此产生的菲斯克-范德比尔特-DSU硕士到博士的桥梁项目将允许学生从菲斯克的硕士到范德比尔特的博士，从菲斯克的硕士到DSU的博士，或者从DSU的硕士到范德比尔特的博士。向哥伦比亚大学及其邻近的合作伙伴输出桥梁项目，作为知识转移和制度变革模型可移植性和适应性的实验。有了这笔规划赠款，他们将试点其最终完整的AGEP计划的四个关键组成部分：(1)一个多层次的管理结构，旨在通过联合国有限公司联盟纵向和横向整合关键利益相关者；(2)项目评估、研究和传播的多方面方法，旨在记录我们的成功和失败，跟踪我们的进展，为他们的AGEP项目的持续改进提供信息，并为扩大参与科学的新兴学术机构做出贡献；(3)按学科扩展硕士-博士衔接项目模式；(4)同心圆的指导结构，包括博士后的领导力发展，他们同时也是AGEP研究生的近同龄人导师。智力价值包括生物、化学、物理、材料科学、天文学、数学、计算机科学和工程等协同研究领域，这些领域将吸引联盟机构的硕士和博士研究生；完善、示范和复制院系层面的制度变革模式，以证明该模式能够培养少数族裔学生的成功和博士学位；对各个领域的方法、招聘、经验和保留进行全面的评估，以查看是否存在差异，了解差异的原因，确定最佳实践，并设计克服问题的干预措施。更广泛的影响包括，参与院校培养的准备充分、代表性不足的少数族裔博士人数大幅增加；联合国有限公司涉及的不同STEM学科的教师和学生之间丰富的跨学科互动和思想交流；加强参与的少数族裔服务机构的研究能力和研究生STEM项目；以及研究型大学院系文化的积极转变，使其更加包容、支持和培养人才。

Vanderbilt proposes the UN-LTD Partnership as an innovative pathway to the PhD and beyond for substantially broadening participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM. The nucleus of UN-LTD is the highly successful Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge program, in which students earn a Master's degree at Fisk as a stepping stone to the PhD program at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt and Fisk are joined in this AGEP by Delaware State University (DSU). Columbia University and neighboring Hunter College will serve as an independent proving ground for transferring and replicating the model. UN-LTD's path to the PhD and to the professoriate emphasizes research engagement and deliberate mentorship by faculty at PhD granting institutions to help students cross the aspirational and institutional transitions. The educational components of UN-LTD include recruitment, graduate training and mentoring, research internships, networking and professional development, along with deliberate preparation for the next level of STEM engagement. With this planning grant they will be developing their program in preparation for a full AGEP.The goal of their full AGEP program will be to produce at least 10 times the U.S. institutional average number of minority PhD recipients in these disciplines, and to sustain this level in steady state.UN-LTD's three objectives will be to:1. Expand the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program to include all core STEM disciplines at Fisk and Vanderbilt: Physics, Astronomy, Materials Science, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering.2. Extend the Bridge Program in partnership with Delaware State University. The resulting Fisk- Vanderbilt-DSU Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program will permit students to transition from the MS at Fisk to the PhD at Vanderbilt, from the MS at Fisk to the PhD at DSU, or from the MS at DSU to the PhD at Vanderbilt.3. Export the Bridge Program to Columbia University and its neighboring partners, as an experiment in knowledge transfer and institutional-change model portability and adaptability.With this planning grant, they will pilot four key components of their eventual full AGEP program: (1) A multi-tiered management structure, designed to integrally involve key stakeholders both vertically and horizontally through the UN-LTD alliance; (2) a multi-faceted approach to program evaluation, research, and dissemination, designed to document our successes and failures, track our progress, inform ongoing refinement of their AGEP program, and contribute to the emerging body of scholarship on the science of broadening participation; (3) a discipline-by-discipline expansion of the Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program model; and (4) a concentric mentoring structure, including leadership development for postdoctoral associateswho also serve as near-peer mentors for the AGEP graduate fellows.Intellectual Merit includes the synergistic areas of collaborative research in biology, chemistry, physics, materials science, astronomy, mathematics, computer science, and engineering that will engage MS and PhD students at the alliance institutions; the refinement, demonstration, and replication of a department level model of institutional change that will be proven to nurture the success and PhD attainment of underrepresented minority students; and thorough evaluation to monitor the approaches, recruiting, experiences, and retention in the various fields to see if there are differences, understand the causes of the differences, identify best practices, and design interventions that overcome problems.Broader impacts include dramatic increases in the production of well prepared, underrepresented minority PhDs by the participating institutions; rich interdisciplinary interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas among the faculty and students in the diverse STEM disciplines involved in UN-LTD; the enhancement of research capacity and graduate STEM programs at the participating minority-serving institutions; and positive transformations in the departmental culture at the research universities to become more inclusive, supportive, and nurturing of talent.