The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program provides funding to alliances of institutions that implement comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustained approaches to broadening participation of students from racial/ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM (African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders) primarily at the undergraduate level. These approaches facilitate the production of well-prepared students highly-qualified and motivated to pursue graduate education or careers in STEM.
Beginning FY2016, LSAMP now accepts proposals for "pre-alliance planning grants" that would support the planning necessary for developing the partnerships and activities required to form new alliances (including Bridge to the Baccalaureate). The expected outcomes of these grants include: (i) commitment from institutional leaders and STEM faculty at partner institutions; (ii) evidence of cohesive partnerships between institutions; (iii) creation of a vision and/or theme for a future alliance; and (iv) comprehensive plans for alliance activities that would lead to the submission of an LSAMP (alliance) proposal.
With the ultimate goal of forming a Bridge to the Baccalaureate alliance in the Denver metropolitan area, the Community College of Aurora (lead institution) is partnering with four other community colleges in the Colorado Community College System to determine how to collectively build on the successes in STEM at the individual campuses and expand the evidence-based practices implemented at the collaborating colleges. Thus, the five partner institutions(Community College of Aurora, Arapahoe Community College, the Community College of Denver, Front Range Community College, and Red Rocks Community College) in their proposed "Mapping a Pathway" project will use the pre-alliance planning grant to collect baseline data, identify barriers that are inhibiting the progress and graduation of students underrepresented in STEM, analyze the recruitment and retention strategies as well as transfer processes, and evaluate institutional infrastructure for supporting alliance objectives.
