A STEP up for the life sciences: Strengthening a research university/minority-serving community college partnership

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The Microbiology & Cell Science Department at the University of Florida (UF) and Miami Dade College (the largest minority-serving institution in the country; MDC) are collaborating on an innovative project that develops a bridge program where students receiving their AA degree from MDC progress to their BS degree at UF. The program is designed to overcome many of the barriers that often reduce broadening participation in STEM by students who often lack the resources or interest in relocating to geographic locations where STEM educational opportunities are better developed. Although innovative, the project includes commonly implemented best practices to improve minority retention in STEM fields such as peer to peer tutoring, career mentoring, undergraduate scholarships, and undergraduate research. Activities with a demonstrated impact on retention and success become a permanent feature of the Distance Education program. Intellectual Merit: The UF-MDC partnership represents the cornerstone of the Microbiology & Cell Science Department's Distance Education program as the program expands statewide by developing partnerships with other 2-yr institutions over the next three years. This project tests an innovative approach to developing a bridge degree program that brings a research university curriculum to the students in their community. In doing so, the project is providing much needed data addressing important and contemporary questions concerning the efficacy of distance learning and the role that technology should play in the education of our nation's undergraduates. Broader Impacts: Because MDC is in an urban environment with diverse communities of students, including many from background underrepresented in the STEM fields, the project is preparing and developing a much larger talent pool of undergraduates that have an interest in STEM (but who otherwise may not have the opportunity) by implementing a program that is designed to offer educational opportunities and meet their needs closer to home.