BRIDGES TO THE BACCALAUREATE AT NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is a competing continuation application for an existing Bridges to the Baccalaureate Degree Program (PAR-02-084) at New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las Cruces. The program proposes to serve American Indian (Al) students at five community colleges. These institutions enroll 6,142 Al students from the Din< (Navajo) Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and nineteen New Mexico Pueblos. They include: Three true tribal community colleges, Din College at Shiprock, NM, Din College at Tsaile, AZ, and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute at Albuquerque, NM; lone state-supported community college, University of New Mexico Gallup Branch at Gallup, NM; and one true community college, San Juan College at Farmington, NM. Funding for 3 years is requested for programmatic activities that attract, enrich, enhance preparedness, and advance Al students into baccalaureate degree programs aligned with the biomedical sciences. The annual goals of this application are: (i) An academic-year seminar/lecture/workshop series will be organized at the community colleges with 30 faculty presenters from NMSU. This will introduce >120 Al science majors to research career opportunities in biomedicine and biomedical-related research in progress at NMSU. (ii) From the student pool in goal (i), 30-35 Al students will visit the NMSU campus each spring for a two-day orientation program to prepare for forthcoming summer research experiences, (iii) From the student pool of goal (ii), 17 Al students will conduct fulltime research with a faculty mentor and participate in many structured enrichment workshops during nine summer weeks at the campus of NMSU. Workshops will include: enhancing computer skills for analysis of research data; discussions of ethical conduct of research; comprehensive laboratory safety training; preparation of research posters; academic transfer advisement; and, financial planning for completion of the B.S. degree; (iv) Faculty seminar presenters will serve as summer research mentors and as academic advisors after students transfer to a B.S. program at NMSU. (v) This application proposes to transfer 70% of its summer research participants to B.S. institutions and to graduate 70% of the transferees With a B.S. degree, (vi) Opportunities are proposed for science instructors from the community colleges to conduct research during the summer months. This Bridge Program has advanced 64.9% (120 of 185 total) of its summer research participants into baccalaureate degree programs since 1992. Also, 64.8% of these transferred Al students have completed B.S. degrees.