: At the University of Delaware (UD) only 5.7% and 2.4% of the students in sciences are African American and Latino, respectively, even though they make up 19.2% and 5% of the State of Delaware's population. Nationally even less, 1.8% of African Americans and 1.4% of Latinos, go on to earn advanced degrees. Therefore, it is critical that members of the academic biomedical community make a concerted effort to foster the entry of underrepresented minorities into the educational pipeline so that they will be competitive for future biomedical positions. UD and Delaware Technology & Community College (DTCC), with four campuses statewide and a significant population of underrepresented minorities, have partnered a program to mentor DTCC minority scholars to ease their transition to biomedical science disciplines at UD. Involved in this program at UD are the Departments of Biological Science, Chemistry & Biochemistry and Computer and Informational Sciences. The focus will be on building a sense of community for the program's students, which will be strengthened after entering UD. This sense of community will be fostered by group activities (summer and academic year seminar programs and NUCLEUS), intensive advisement under the guidance of two trained professionals (the UD & DTCC program coordinators), special student support services at DTCC and UD (academic tutoring and peer mentoring) and participation in an enriched curriculum at DTCC and participation in research activities at UD. Centerpieces of the program will be an Apprenticeship Program and a competitive Bridges Research Scholars Program. The apprenticeships will introduce students to research in UD faculty labs, by providing part-time salary support to involve them in data collection and analysis. The Bridges Research Scholars program will support academically excellent DTCC students in UD faculty research labs during the summer of their transition year to work on their own projects. It is hoped that after arriving at UD these students will continue this research. UD support for undergraduate research is extensive. Through association with the UD NUCLEUS Program, students will build a sense of community with UD underrepresented minorities, which will be supportive. It will allow DTCC Bridges students to see what life at UD entails, what academic effort is required and the rewards of being academically excellent. We anticipate that Bridges students will be more prepared to enter graduate programs.
