Increasing underrepresented minority (URM) representation in biomedical research is a high priority; doing so requires increasing the pipeline of URMs who pursue PhDs in biomedical sciences. Our IMSD program provides a coordinated series of developmental activities to support URM students academically and financially. For undergraduates, our specific aims focus on enabling students to excel in foundation courses (chemistry, calculus, and biology); to graduate in biology with GPAs z 3.0; and to enter biomedical sciences PhD programs. To achieve this, we provide BUSP (Biology Undergraduate Scholars Program) freshman and sophomores with a structured program of supplemental course work in chemistry and math, a lab skills course, and personal/academic advising. We also encourage BUSP sophomores to participate in research. While these activities have been successful in increasing BUSP students' academic performance, we find that not all BUSP students participate in research, and so miss its benefits. Thus, in this renewal, we will require a two-quarter research experience for BUSP sophomores, as we do for students in the BUSP-based Transfer Student Fellows (TSFP) program for community college transfers. In addition, we will continue BUSP Honors Research for juniors/seniors continuing their research. We will also add a monthly seminar course on ethical issues in science for BUSP/TSFP juniors and seniors. This course will be a collaboration between our IMSD program and the McNair Scholars and other campus math and physics programs. We believe that these two changes (required research and the junior/senior seminar series) will further enhance the success of our BUSP/TSFP students. At the graduate level, our two goals are to maintain our IMSD Fellows' high success rate in advancing to candidacy and completing their PhD, and to use their success to change the culture of PhD program admission committees. For the first goal, we will continue to provide financial, academic, and personal support to URM students during their first 2 yrs of study. Entering PhD students will participate in a 7 wk summer bridge program featuring a research lab rotation, plus weekly group meetings to orient them to campus, to enhance their oral and written skills, and to broaden their scientific knowledge base. Weekly group meetings will continue through their first year and will include second year students as well. Regarding the second goal, our data on URM student admissions to the 13 participating graduate programs suggest greater acceptance of students who, by traditional measures (GPA, GRE scores), may not look as strong as other candidates. We will continue to work with admission committees and will track this trend as more of our IMSD Fellows successfully move through the program.
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