The Leadership Alliance is an organization of 32 institutional members that created the Partnership for Minority Science Education (PMSE), a substantive program that links minority serving institutions to research institutions. Beginning in 1992 and headquartered at Brown University, the program is designed to increase the numbers of underrepresented students participating in STEM disciplines and careers. PMSE is the subject of this nomination. PMSE links the resources of the Alliance's research institutions to the talent pools of underrepresented students from its minority serving institutional partners nationally. Specific mentoring activities include: the Summer Research Early Identification Program, an eight to ten week research experiences for undergraduates that link students with research mentors; and the Leadership Alliance National Symposium (LANS): a national networking site for all members of the Leadership Alliance. LANS provides an important venue for Summer Research Early Identification Program student research presentations. At the symposium, students work with faculty mentors, academic administrators, representatives of federal training programs, and experts with knowledge of funding opportunities, career strategies, and skills necessary for competitive graduate applications.
PMSE is a single program hosted at multiple institutions. Students submit a single application and can select up to three institutions at which they are interested in working. Five to six hundred applications are submitted annually. SR-EIP has a broad appeal across disciplines, with applications divided 50% in the life sciences, 25% in the physical sciences and 25% in the humanities since 2001. From 2001-2005, 768 underrepresented undergraduate students participated in cutting-edge summer research through PMSE and SR-EIP. An average of 165 students completed research projects each summer. 66% of the students were women, 52% African-American, 35% Hispanic and 13% were Native American. This was the first research experience for 56% of the students who participated. Seventy former PMSE students have emerged from the Ph.D. pipeline, along with more than 120 MDs. The Alliance also provides mentoring to former PMSE students at critical transitions along the pathway. Those in graduate training have contact with coordinators and faculty and often serve as graduate mentors for PMSE undergraduates in subsequent summers.
