Strides Toward Encouraging Professions In Science

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Strides Toward Encouraging Professions in Science (STEPS) is a collaborative effort by Community College of Denver(CCD), Community College of Aurora(CCA) and Metropolitan State College of Denver(MSCD) with assistance from the Graduate School of the University of Colorado Health Science Center(UCHSC). The goals of the STEPS program are 1) to increase the number of community college students, from historically under-represented minorities (URM) in biomedical reasearch, who declare majors that are likely to lead to careers in biomedical research 2) to increase the the number of URM community college students, who complete the AS degree and transfer to a 4 yr college, preferably MSCD. 3) to increase the the number of URM college students who complete the BS degree and go on to pursue a graduate degree, perferrably at UCHSC. While this third goal is not strictly supported by the NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate program, it is certainly the ultimately goal of the Bridges to the Future Initiatives and always in the minds of our program staff. Students in the STEPS program are supported academically primarily through tutoring, while being exposed to extracurricular enrichment activities designed to introduce them to the culture of the biomedical research community. The students participate in a scientific literacy seminar aka "The Journal Club" where they learn to read and discuss primary literature. The students must participate in the Introduction to Biomedical Research Seminar to master a variety of skills that will be useful to them in their internships. Depending on each student's interest and ability, they will either be placed with a research group at UCHSC or will work with a MSCD, CCD or CCA professor on the Auraria or Lowry campus for a 160 to 320 hr internship. Travel to scientific conferences is supported both for students early in their participation in the program, again so they may become accustomed to the culture of research scientists, and later so that they may have the experience of sharing the research they have done during their internship in the form of a poster presentation. STEPS alumni have made significant contributions in the research labs they've worked and future students will do the same, hopefully some will make contributions of their own in the future in their own research groups.