Bridges to the Baccalaureate at Florida A&M University

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) served as baccalaureate institutions of origin for approximately one quarter of African Americans who earned STEM and Engineering doctoral degrees from 2015-2019, yield more than 17% of bachelor’s degrees, and more than a quarter of all STEM baccalaureate degrees earned by Black students. As Florida’s only public HBCU, Florida A&M University has a rich tradition in cultivating African American students from diverse backgrounds with superior academic qualities. While HBCUs have overperformed in doctoral degrees earned by their graduates, the dearth of underrepresented doctoral degrees in the sciences remains a problem. This is in part due to underutilization of public Community Colleges. The Bridges to the Baccalaureate Research Training Program at Florida A&M University (B2B) aims to provide structured, evidence-based activities to prepare a diverse cohort of community college students to transfer to and complete a bachelor's degree in biomedical research fields; stimulate interest among UR students across the campuses of TCC and FAMU to pursue biomedical research-based terminal degrees; and increase the number of UR students who hold leadership positions in STEM research enterprises. Through an intricately designed program interwoven with social cognitive career theory and community cultural wealth, B2B acknowledges and leverages students’ cultural capital, backgrounds and experiences, and their impact on self- efficacy, science identity, career decision making, everyday actions, and outcomes. The B2B will recruit and maintain 10 B2B trainees in year 1 and 5 in years 2-5 with a minimum 2.7 GPA, full-time enrollment in the gateway science courses, and strong research career interest; establish a semi-structured Peer Mentoring program where Year II B2B trainees are matched with FAMU NCI CaRE2 trainees, and YEAR I B2B trainees to facilitate topic based and informal mentoring; and facilitate professional development of TCC faculty and academic advisors to better align advisement with preparation for matriculation into biomedically-related baccalaureate programs at FAMU. The B2B will provide faculty-mentored research experiences where B2B trainees produce mini proposals for projects that serve as the basis for mentored research training and use results from their authentic research experiences to present at regional symposia and national science conferences. Career development activities, including academic success workshops, professional development seminars, research seminars, structured and independent activities related to career exploration in the biomedical sciences, and leadership development trainings will enhance the institutional culture of both TCC and FAMU. This partnership will be further leveraged to implement an Annual Research Day at TCC that features presentations from B2B trainees and other students involved in research at TCC and FAMU. Open to the broader TCC and FAMU campus communities, Research Day will help facilitate learning about biomedical research related careers and training opportunities.