Kansas Bridges to the Future

描述(申请人提供)：随着拉美裔美国人的涌入和增加，堪萨斯州继续变得更加多样化。堪萨斯州西南部超过25%是西班牙裔，西南部三个最大城市的学校系统超过70%是西班牙裔。在堪萨斯州立大学，我们观察到拉美裔和非裔美国人的比例稳步上升，因为大学适龄学生中占多数的比例下降，而来自代表不足的少数族裔的比例上升。我们之前的Bridges项目非常成功地将西班牙裔和非裔美国社区大学生带到K-State完成了他们的理学士学位。自成立以来的5年里，已经有10名学生获得了理工科学士学位，还有8名学生计划在今年毕业，总共有44名学生转到了K-State。合作社区学院和堪萨斯州立大学为每名布里奇斯学生提供全额学杂费支持，以通过布里奇斯完成他们的理学士学位。一种变革和欢迎的文化改变了K-State社区，从行政部门到教职员工。在之前的奖项中，我们有5所社区学院，其中2所来自堪萨斯城，3所来自堪萨斯州西南部。我们建议继续与3所西南社区学院合作，以符合新计划的公告，并与这3所社区学院一起取得更大的成功。我们将继续并加强我们之前成功的一些基础：1)潜在的布里奇斯学生和他们的家人将在每年4月的布里奇斯开放日期间访问K-State，会见K-State教授和顾问，已经转学到K-State的布里奇斯学生；2)在社区大学第一年后，Bridges的学生将来到K-State并参加一个为期一周的学分间歇课程，在那里他们将学习负责任的研究行为、科学方法、在K-State进行的研究，并住在宿舍了解校园生活；3)允许Bridges的学生在K-State教授的实验室完成为期8周的研究实习，在K-State入学之前。在这项申请中，我们提出了社区学院的两个新元素：1)允许潜在的布里奇斯学生担任本科生助理，帮助准备实验室，以提高他们的实验室技能；2)使用基于合作学习的模式参与社区研究。所有学生都将在严谨的科学、化学和数学基础上做好准备，以确保他们在四年制学校取得成功。当他们转到K-State时，我们将继续为他们的研究经验提供便利，为他们提供津贴，使他们能够在K-State发展中学者计划下作为研究助理工作2年，并为他们提供持续的学术支持。总体目标是增加拥有生物医学、生物行为科学和长期医学学士学位的堪萨斯州少数民族学生的人数，以增加攻读生物医学和生物行为科学博士或医学博士学位的人数。 与公共卫生相关：堪萨斯州立大学在过去的5年里成功地开发了一个学士学位项目。我们建议与堪萨斯州西南部的三所社区学院合作，开展充实活动和研究实习经验，以提高他们在转学时获得广告学士学位的成功率。所有布里奇斯的学生将得到他们的社区学院和K-State的全额学杂费支持。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Kansas continues to become more diverse with the influx and increase of Hispanics. Over 25% of Southwest Kansas is Hispanic and the school systems in three of the largest southwest cities are over 70% Hispanic. At Kansas State University we have observed a steady increase in both Hispanics and African-Americans as the percent of college age students who are majority declines and those from under-represented minorities increases. Our previous Bridges program has been very successful in bring Hispanic and African-American community college students to K-State to complete their BS degree. Ten students have receive their BS degrees in 5 years since inception, 8 more are scheduled to graduate this year, and 44 of the students total have transferred to K-State. The partnering community colleges and Kansas State University offers each Bridges student full tuition and fee support to complete their BS degree through Bridges. A culture of change and welcoming has transformed the K-State community from administration to faculty to staff. In the previous awards, we have had 5 community colleges, two from Kansas City and 3 from southwest Kansas. We propose to continue to work with the 3 southwest community colleges to comply with the new program announcement and to build on our greater success with these 3 community colleges. We will continue and enhance some of the building blocks of our previous success: 1) potential Bridges students and their families will visit K-State during the Bridges Open House in April of each year to meet with K-State professor and advisers, Bridges students who have already transferred to K-State, 2) After their first year at the community college, Bridges students will come to K-State and attend a one week intersession class for credit where they will learn about responsible conduct in research, the scientific method, research conducted at K-State, and live in the dormitory to learn about campus life; 3) allowing Bridges students to complete an 8 week research internship in the laboratory of a K-State professor after year 2 and prior to matriculating at K-State. In this application we propose two new elements at the community colleges: 1) allow potential Bridges students to be under-graduate assistants to help in the preparation of laboratories to sharpen their lab skills and 2) participate in community research using a cooperative learning based model. All students will be prepared in a rigorous foundation of science, chemistry, and math to help assure their later success at a 4 year institution. When they transfer to K-State, we will continue to facilitate their research experiences by providing them with a stipend to enable them to work as research assistants for 2 years under K-States' Developing Scholars Program and provide them with ongoing academic support. The overall goal is to increase the pool size of Kansas minority students with a BS degree in the biomedical, biobehavioral sciences and long-term to increase the numbers pursuing PhDs or MD-PhDs in the biomedical, biobehavioral sciences. Public Health Relevance: Kansas State University has successfully developed a Bridges to the Bachelor's degree program over the last 5 years. We propose to work with three southwest Kansas community colleges to develop enrichment activities and research internship experiences to enhance their success to obtain ad BS degree when they transfer. All Bridges students will receive full tuition and fee support by their community colleges and K-State.