Gatekeepers & Roadblocks: Increasing URM Student Success

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Brooklyn College of CUNY proposes to develop and implement an MBRS-RISE program to overcome institutional barriers to increasing the interests, skills and competitiveness of minority group students and science faculty in pursuit of biomedical research careers. Our self study defined those institutional problems for students to be a) academic difficulties in the transition from high school to college science courses; b) students' lack of appropriate learning skills, resulting in poor performance in key science classes; c) insufficient opportunity for students to be directly involved in research that will increase skills, interest and motivation for science careers; and d) lack of knowledge about potential biomedical science careers and the process of developing effective applications to graduate schools. We will remedy these barriers with a tightly integrated set of activities that includes: a) a summer pre-freshman bridge program emphasizing the learning strategies and content mastery to succeed in college science classes; b) a 4-year Learning Community, with required skills-and-content oriented workshops in key science classes and intensive comprehensive advisement; c ) weekly RISE seminars with content that changes as students progress through the program; d) a structured research ladder in the academic year and summers, starting from the post-freshman summer, which systematically introduces students to research methods, techniques, and hands-on laboratory work, including a summer research externship, and culminating in a full independent research project and paper in the senior year; and e) enrichment activities to improve student computer literacy, GRE performance, and strategies for successful applications to biomedical graduate programs. Students will be trained to read and critique original research papers, and develop the communication skills and confidence to present their own research in a professional manner. Interest in biomedical careers will be motivated through interactions with successful academic and industrial biomedical scientists. The goals of the student activities are to maintain students in science major tracks, particularly as underclassmen, and improve their grades and other credentials so that more can move successfully to biomedical graduate programs. On the faculty side, Provost's Seminars on Innovative Science Teaching will involve faculty in improving how key science courses are taught. Barriers to greater research productivity will be addressed by a faculty grant workshop to train new faculty to write effective grant applications in support of their research programs and greater research output. The outcomes of these activities will be systematically evaluated during the project, with adjustments made to assure that our goals and objectives are met.