The overall goal of the proposed bridging program is to help foster the development of talented underrepresented minority master's students and encourage them to pursue advanced training leading to a biomedical PhD at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) after graduation. Key features of our proposed program will be the extensive campus interactions to integrate the MS and doctoral programs and also advance our ability to offer biomedical training to both life science and non-traditional students (e.g. mathematics, computer science, engineering majors). The MS students will come from three schools located in south Texas that have a high minority student enrollment and offer a terminal master's program in the sciences. They represent universities and programs that UTMB has partnered with extensively and has established close relationships with the science faculty and advisors.
The specific aims of the proposed program are to: 1. Establish an admissions process that simultaneously admits MS students into both the Bridges and PhD programs. 2. Enhance the partner institution's mentoring and advising programs for master's students by involving faculty from UTMB's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). 3. Provide for curricular exchange and establish course equivalencies between the partner institutions and the UTMB GSBS. 4. Provide opportunities for master's students to conduct part of their thesis research at UTMB. 5. Ensure that all master's students have formal, well-established coursework in scientific integrity. 6. Foster research collaborations between faculty at the master's institution and UTMB and enhance the research capabilities of the master's institution. 7. Establish criteria for student selection into the bridging program and set specific goals and measurable outcomes to allow tracking of the program's progress. Several key outcomes from the program will be: 1) the creation of a partnership that supports and facilitates the transition of minority students from a master's program to a biomedical PhD; 2) a focusing of effort and resources to benefit largely the partnering master's institution and its students; 3) an enhancement of the competitiveness and confidence of the master's students so they can successfully complete the PhD.
