Bronx Community College (BCC) and Lehman College (LC), which are both located in the Bronx, are part of the City University of New York (CUNY). They are minority institutions, with highly qualified science faculties, sizable science and allied health science student populations, and strong commitments to science education and undergraduate research. Both colleges have an NIH Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program, and LC has a Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program and Minority Institution Research Development Program (MIRDP) as well. BCC and LC are presently in partnership with a Bridge to the Baccalaureate Program. To continue their education, most BCC transfer students select LC over other CUNY four-year schools. However, the number of BCC science students who transfer to LC has been small, which may have been due to student insecurities and a lack of confidence. In either case, a difficult transition period could interfere with a student s progress and success. The primary goal of this project is to continue to improve and facilitate the transition of BCC science student who transfer to baccalaureate programs in Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology at LC. The project is aimed primarily at BCC science students and faculty; however, LC will benefit as well. The BCC science students will get a better academic preparation, additional academic support in the form of counseling and tutoring, and more undergraduate research opportunities. BCC science faculty will have a formal mechanism in place to reestablish themselves in research activities. The Bridge project will strengthen the Science Academy at BCC, and the formal BCC-LC transfer program in the sciences. To help assure success for the transfer program, the Bridge Project will increase the BCC students awareness of their abilities, the demands of the BA/BS program, and the level of motivation needed to pursue higher education in the sciences. The transition will be eased through mentoring, research activities, and science seminars at LC. This is expected to increase the number of BCC students who transfer to LC and continue undergraduate research at MARC, MBRS, or MIRDP students, clearly a benefit for LC and its faculty, Furthermore, the science transfers should be better prepared. BCC faculty will benefit from the faculty collaborations and their increased research activities. These BCC faculty members will be expected to pursue funding for their own projects, so as to further increase the student research opportunities at the two year college. The project ultimately may increase the number of minority science students who continue on to a baccalaureate program, and eventually to graduate school.
