Kansas Bridges to the Future

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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.