Academic Opportunities through Recruitment, Retention & Mentoring for Undergraduate Minorities in Biotechnology & Forensic Science

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Intellectual merit : This project's goals at Fort Valley State University (FVSU) are: 1) to achieve full retention of talented but financially disadvantaged undergraduates majoring in the sciences, while significantly reducing their time to graduation; 2) to recruit disadvantaged but talented scholars into STEM majors, making efforts to reach underrepresented minorities and; 3) to prepare them not only to pursue advanced degrees in STEM but also to play educational, leadership and managerial roles in STEM fields. The project targets 33 fulltime FVSU undergraduate students enrolling in Plant Science-Biotechnology (25 scholarships) and Biology/Forensic Science (8 scholarships). A Scholarship Screening and Selection Committee is formed to foster this program and consists of distinguished faculty members recognized for their mentoring ability and scholarship from diverse STEM fields as well as the Financial Aid Director. Each scholarship recipient is assigned a designated faculty mentor to guide the recipient's academic development. A rich array of opportunities are available to the scholarship recipients including a monthly seminar, tutoring, summer internship and service learning positions, field trips, faculty-student collaborative research, attendance at conferences, and alumni mentoring and comprehensive career counseling. The biotechnology and forensic science scholarships broaden the horizons of FVSU students in considering their career choices. Broader impacts: The geographic niche that FVSU serves includes south-central Georgia which is characterized by a high proportion of African American residents in rural setting that are often afflicted by persistent poverty. FVSU is a historically black university, and a vast majority (93% of enrolled students) are minority students that are characteristically under-represented in STEM fields. This project supports a larger STEM initiative that seeks to increase and strengthen partnerships, networks and collaborations between HBCUs and mainstream universities, state and regional forensic and health sciences laboratories, USDA and other agricultural enterprises. Through this project greater numbers of financially needy students are presented opportunities to successfully complete their baccalaureate degrees and go on to pursue graduate programs or enter careers in a broad range of science-related fields, meeting regional and national workforce needs. This program serves as a model for adapting the successful activities for other minority-serving institutions seeking to promote undergraduate mentoring programs in STEM.