U-RISE at Tennessee State University

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PROJECT SUMMARY Tennessee State University (TSU) is a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) founded in 1912. A very high percentage of TSU undergraduate students are from groups historically under-represented (UR) in biomedical research. More than 95% of TSU undergraduates are UR with 79% African American, 2.1% Hispanic, and 0.19% Native/Am. Indian. The proposed TSU Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE) program has the overarching goal of increasing the number of UR undergraduate students who pursue the necessary education/training (Ph.D. degrees in biomedicine) to engage in biomedical research careers. The TSU U-RISE program will provide the psychosocial resources, course work, and research experiences needed for students to progress from undergraduate school to graduate school (Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. programs). The proposed program will support 3 Junior and 3 Senior undergraduate students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology. A number of strategies and activities are proposed to achieve the following specific goals of the program: 1. Increase the retention and 4-year graduation rates of students who participate in the TSU U-RISE program above those of TSU as a whole and of the departments participating in the TSU U-RISE program. The retention and graduation rates of the proposed U-RISE program trainees would be expected to be greater than 90%. 2. Prepare UR students who are pursuing a BS degree in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology to apply to graduate programs in the biomedical sciences (specifically Ph.D. programs). The program will support 3 Junior and 3 Senior level students each year and aims to have a minimum of 2 of the 3 graduating students (67%) applying to PhD programs within 2 years of graduating. 3. Provide the course work, research experiences, and psychosocial resources (workshops, communities of practice, and learning communities) needed for students to gain acceptance to those Ph.D. programs to which they apply. Have 75% of those students who apply to Ph.D. programs (in a given 2-year period) gain acceptance within 2 years of graduating. 4. Develop critical thinking skills of TSU U-RISE trainees to prepare them for the level of analytical rigor needed for graduate program admission and completion. The GRE is to some extent a measure of these skills. The objective is to have average verbal and quantitative scores of 154 (64th percentile verbal, 53rd percentile quantitative) for those students who take the exam. Another measure of critical thinking skills will be the ability to critically discuss research papers, which will be assessed each semester in the current biomedical topics course. 5. Develop the presentation skills of TSU U-RISE program participants. Each of the first year U-RISE participants will present their research at a minimum of 2 scientific meetings per year (national, regional, or local). In the second year, students will present at 1 national discipline specific meeting and a minimum of 1 regional or local meeting.