Two-Year to Four-Year Transition Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): CaIifornia State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles City College, East Los Angeles College, and Pasadena City College propose to continue a very successful collaborative Bridges to the Future effort whose goal is to increase the number of well prepared community college minority students who transfer to a four year institution and successfully complete the bachelors degree in a biomedically-related science major. The long term objective is to increase the pool of talented minority students who enter and complete graduate programs leading to the Ph.D. in biomedical science disciplines. To this end we will train four Freshmen and four Sophomores per year at each of the three community colleges (total of 24 students per year) in an enriched academic program. These institutions are located in one of the major population centers of ethnic minority groups in the United States, and are strategically placed to serve large numbers of students from these communities. They are geographically close to each other and all enroll large numbers of minority students from groups underrepresented in biomedical science research careers. All have many decades of experience in working with minority students; and all are committed to undergraduate education. It is our intent to continue a program which includes 1) a solid science curriculum, which is enhanced by: 2 participation in special workshops; 3) careful academic advisement~ 4) networking through the deliberate interaction of the Fellows with science faculty and other successful science students both at their community colleges and at Cal State LA; 5) tutoring for enhanced achievement in the biomedical sciences; 6) participation ii biomedical sciences seminar series; and 7) a significant introduction to research. The program is designed to increase their academic achievement; integrate them into the Community College and major Department communities; expose them to the biomedical sciences and scientists; enhance their transfer rate to four yea institution; and lay the foundation for their eventual successful research careers in the biomedical sciences. The program we propose to continue has been very successful in meeting its goals: the transfer rate to four-year colleges and universities for participants is an impressive 77%, considerably higher than the 20% usually seen for minority students from these community colleges. All who transferred to California State University Los Angeles were incorporated into biomedical research groups.