Riverside Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program (Riverside B2B)

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Project Summary The School of Medicine at UCR proposes to create a research education program to facilitate transfer of students into Biomedical and Behavioral science majors, with the ultimate goal of increasing participation of underrepresented minority groups in research-oriented careers in these areas. Many underrepresented minority (URM) students have less access to high quality science instruction, resources and enriching opportunities at all stages of public education. African Americans, Chicano/Latino, Native Americans, Hawaiian and Alaskan Natives, Pacific Islander or socio-economically disadvantaged students make up a small percentage of science teachers in K-12 as well as higher education, and are even more underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral science fields requiring post-graduate degrees. The proposed program, Riverside Bridges to the Baccalaureate (Riverside B2B) will be established between Riverside City College (RCC) and the University of California Riverside (UCR) to identify students committed to pursuing a career in science and facilitate their transfer and successful completion of Baccalaureate degrees in STEM majors, with a specific focus on biomedical and behavioral science-related research. The program contains interventions and support services designed to substantially improve the overall two-year graduation rate for RCC Bridges Scholars, to help them achieve graduation in a normative two-year window following matriculation at UCR, and to address the causes of URM attrition in STEM programs. Specific program components include: compensated research experiences to stimulate greater awareness of career options in the biomedical and behavioral sciences and to reduce the necessity of working in non-academic jobs; peer and faculty mentoring that begins before RCC Bridges Scholars transfer to UCR; and a summer “boot camp” to familiarize incoming students with UCR's course structure and student support services. By creating a program that bridges the community college and four-year university education and provides adequate preparation before and mentoring after transfer, we believe we can overcome these disadvantages and improve the success and persistence of URM transfer students in biomedical and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Riverside.