BRIDGE PROGRAM IN RURAL NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Investigator's Abstract): The Bridges Program in Rural Northern New Mexico is a competing continuation application designed to improve on efforts to increase the number of minority students seeking science as a career option. During the second year (1996) of this ongoing program and the three year renewal proposal, Southwest Indian Polytechnical Institute (SIPI) (>95% minority) and Luna Vocational Technical Institute (LVTI) (>85% minority) will be added to the program. Thus, the program will include 8 community colleges which serve 6000 minority students in a area covering over 100,000 square miles. The quality and success of the first year students has resulted in the successful recruitment of 9 additional funded mentors, all of whom were recruited by pleased 1995 mentors. Consequently the will be an optimal 1/1 ratio of 24 students and 24 mentors. Three qualified students from each of the eight community colleges (24 total) will be selected by the community college Program Coordinators and the mentors. Criteria for admission include a minimum GPA of 3.0 and an interest in science. During the first two months of the Spring semester, students are introduced to the 24 mentors at weekly seminars. By mutual agreement one student will be assigned to each mentor for direction and information during the subsequent academic semesters. The 24 students will be offered research assistantships for 10 weeks during the following summers. Any students who do not return for year two will be replaced from remaining students in a pool of 20 to 24 eligible students. The 24 research mentors will be from NMHU, TLI and the UNMSOM, all of which have research funding and have further support pending review. Mentors will have individual meetings (twice per year) with the students to discuss the development or progress of their research project as well as discuss issues and academic requirements in science and mathematics. During the summer, research mentors work with the students as part of a research team. During the year research mentors will continue to take their students to appropriate regional or national meetings. Normally, students will present a paper or poster session at these meetings by their second year in the program. All students have the opportunity to visit Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories for the purpose of discussing research careers with life science researchers. In addition, students from the participating two-year institutions will participate in seminars at NMHU and UNMSOM during the academic year and summer. In these sessions, students critically analyze research articles and published results. These analyses are used to plan future experiments. Emphasis is placed on peer-study groups with minority upper classmen serving as tutors and role models. In 1995, students participated in a minimum of one seminar per week. This one-on-one, experientially-based program has been successful so far and should be just as successful in the future