RISE-REACHeS seeks to instill Resiliency, Excellence, Achievement and Community in Health Sciences Research Program in our trainees guided by social cognitive career theory (Byers-Winston, 2016). The long-term goal of our RISE-REACHeS is to continue to increase the number of BS and BA graduates from life, physical and social behavioral sciences disciplines at Morgan State University (MSU), who will obtain a Ph.D. degree in a health-relevant field and commit to a research career. The RISE Program at MSU, since inception in 1999, has centered on mentored research training in on-campus and off-campus labs and research groups. Based on formative and summative evaluations, our Program has evolved to scaffold hands-on research with specific learning goals (science process and communications skills, critical thinking skills and soft skills) and strategically placed group activities over the course of the academic year and summer. Over the history of RISE at MSU we have graduated 122 students; cumulatively 70% of these students have entered graduate school. This proposal will continue our successful strategies, but also pursue innovative approaches to increase the impact of the RISE Program on the overall numbers of graduates from relevant disciplines at MSU. We continue to have a need to fundamentally improve the academic preparedness of our students, particularly at the level of their foundation courses, to increase the pool of students prepared for research. Furthermore, this proposal aims to address specific barriers to STEM persistence that we have observed at MSU and that are borne out in the relevant literature. Thus, the current proposal pursues the following Specific Aims: 1) To create and develop a freshman focused component of RISE to foster science identity and establish self-efficacy from the start of student?s academic career. 2) To establish an interdisciplinary Supplemental Instruction (SI) program for foundation courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics. This approach will help students to see the connections between these interrelated disciplines from the get-go and increase academic performance and retention. This component will strengthen student?s academic self-efficacy and degree persistence across the SCMNS and therewith increase impact beyond RISE Program participants. 3) To streamline the existing curriculum of effective interventions in a manner that will enhance the progressive development of central skills needed for graduate school success. This process will be scaffolded by the implementation of an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for RISE participants and regularly scheduled REACHeS community meetings.
Morgan State University is the designated Urban University of Maryland with a student population greater than 90% African American, and composed largely of first generation college students. Thus, our students are underrepresented in biomedical research by both ethnicity and socio-economic background. This proposal will continue our successful strategy to provide hands-on research training and proven supplemental activities to prepare a group of highly promising undergraduate students for Ph.D. programs. In addition, we propose a series of innovative strategies to improve our curriculum and therewith strengthen the preparedness of all our graduates, in relevant scientific departments, to enter post-graduate biomedical training. Our long-term goal is to contribute researchers that possess the ability to address some of the critical health disparities in our nation. RISE-REACHeS Research Program presents an innovative approach that will equip our trainees with Resiliency, Excellence, Achievement and Community in Health Sciences Research Program RISE-REACHeS over barriers through MSU to graduate school with the proposed implementation of a program of effective interventions.
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