Bridges to the Doctorate Program at Cal State LA

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The under-participation of minority group members in the nation's biomedical research enterprise represents the loss of a large talent pool that has not been applied towards the solution of the Nation's many biomedical problems. As a partial solution to this situation, three institutions in the Los Angeles basin propose a collaborative Bridge to the Doctorate at Cal State LA (B2D@CSLA) program to increase the number of talented minority students in Ph.D. programs in the biomedical sciences. This will be done by increasing the transfer of minority students from strong MS programs at a minority institution into PhD programs at major research universities. These institutions are California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), a minority institution which awards the MS as its highest science degree, and two PhD-granting major research institutions: the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California at Irvine. We propose to train each year a group of 25 minority students pursuing the MS degree at Cal State LA in a program designed to enhance their academic and research achievement; integrate them into the broader Southern California biomedical research community; expose them to a broad range of biomedical sciences and scientists; enhance their transfer rate to PhD programs; and establish the foundation for their eventual successful research careers in the biomedical sciences. B2D@CSLA seeks to further an established environment at Cal State LA that mimics a doctoral program in many important respects: We provide a strong, lab-based M.S. research environment where the research interests of the Fellows drive their placement in labs. We design an academic plan for the Fellows that overcomes deficiencies in their undergraduate records. We employ monthly discipline-specific journal clubs for Fellows to be trained in critical analysis of the original research literature. We host three strong, weekly science seminar series throughout the academic year that provide opportunities for Fellows and faculty to interact with academic scientists from PhD-granting institutions. And we provide close mentoring to our Fellows to guide them through the academic process—mentoring provided by a faculty that is itself well represented by minority group members. These best practices, initiated and institutionalized by NIH-funded student training programs, have made Cal State LA a well-respected magnet for minority science graduates in the Greater Los Angeles area to earn their MS degrees and proceed to the PhD degree. This proposal seeks to expand these best practices at Cal State LA from two departments to six departments, from one College to three Colleges, and from 6 students to 25 students.