FGLSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate 2016-2018

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The University of South Florida will serve as the 2016-2018 Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) institutional site for the NSF Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (FGLSAMP) Project with the goal of increasing the number of underrepresented students in STEM who will become the next generation of scientists, engineers, research innovators, entrepreneurs, and faculty role models. USF's FGLSAMP BD Project will provide the unique academic setting and multiple opportunities to facilitate the professional advancement of LSAMP graduates committed to both achieving outstanding careers in engineering, computational, mathematics, and scientific disciplines (physical, biological, geosciences), and shaping the nation's 21st century STEM research agenda. The new FGLSAMP BD Activity will boldly build upon the overwhelming success of six previous FGLSAMP USF BD awards (94% of students are expected to earn an advanced STEM degree) by institutionalizing the best practices initiated with the 2004 BD Project to all USF STEM majors. The project also embodies proven organizational and operational principles by extending the successful LSAMP model of empowering minority undergraduates toward achieving academic and social integration and professionalization in the sciences into graduate STEM programs. By around 2020, more than half of the nation's children are expected to come from minority or ethnic groups according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In response to these changing demographics, both the National Academies and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) have documented the need to increase the participation of individuals from historically underrepresented groups in S&E to help maintain the nation's competitiveness in technology and research innovation. As such, an expected benefit of this university-wide, unified, institutionally integrated FGLSAMP BD project will be to help revitalize the national talent pool of domestic PhD trained scientists and engineers. Another benefit of the FGLSAMP BD activity will be to help address the critical shortfall of individuals from underrepresented groups who become STEM faculty. Through evidence-based practices (e.g., proposal writing preparation, peer-to-peer mentoring, minority scientist role model interactions, engagement with undergraduates and K-12 students, etc.), this FGLSAMP BD activity will seek to encourage a greater number of URM students to pursue both academic careers and nontraditional STEM career pathways (entrepreneurship, governmental research, industry, etc.) The five measurable objectives for the project are as follows: 1) Recruit twelve (12) minority students as NSF FGLSAMP BD fellows by fall 2016 into all USF STEM Colleges, 2) Initiate professional development activities to prepare FGLSAMP BD fellows and FGLSAMP scholars across the Alliance for competitive NSF GRFP applications and other fellowship programs, 3) Support the transition of all USF FGLSAMP BD fellows into STEM PhD programs, 4) Prepare FGLSAMP BD fellows to become globally engaged researchers through cutting-edge research projects and interactions with international scientists; and 5) Implement new graduate student mentoring and outreach initiatives that will both encourage students to pursue academic careers and also help to broaden the national participation of URM students in STEM.