TRANSITION TO RESEARCH CAREERS

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Three regional institutions and the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico System will improve the current transfer program in a manner which will augment the number of underrepresented minorities who continue graduate studies in the biomedical sciences. The three participating regional institutions; Bayamon and Ponce Technological University Colleges and the Carolina Regional College do not offer baccalaureate degrees in either Biology or Chemistry and students in these areas generally transfer to the Rio Piedras Campus in order to complete their degrees. A significant fraction of science transfer students from regional institutions complete B. S. degrees (ca 70%), but about a third do so without a specific science major and very few continue graduate studies. The Transition to Research Careers (TRC) project proposes to improve this situation by implementing the following program for transfer students: 1. Coordination of 1st and 2nd year Chemistry and Mathematics courses between the Rio Piedras Campus and the two year programs. 2. Organizing a tutorial program which will identify students who are capable of performing well in science courses and assure that these become highly competent in these areas. 3. Establish a summer research program at Rio Piedras for science faculty from the regional institutions. 4. Providing a summer workshop for rising sophomores. 5. Selecting 18 sophomores as TRC trainees and providing these with a summer research experience at the Rio Piedras Campus. 6. Assuring that all TRC trainees continue undergraduate research at the Rio Piedras Campus. 7. Assuring extramural research experiences for all rising Seniors in the TRC program.