The State University of New York Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SUNY LSAMP) will sponsor its third cohort of Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) during academic years 2008-2010. The alliance provides resources that greatly assist current efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minority (UREP) science, technology, engineering and mathematic (STEM) doctoral students and continue to bring about improvements in graduate education that will help not only UREP students but all graduate STEM students. Results will serve to increase the number of underrepresented minorities prepared to participate in the STEM professoriate at U. S. colleges and universities.
The goals and objectives of the program are to recruit 12 LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate students for matriculation in academic years 2008-2010 by: (1) Continuing to build recruitment pathways that target the state and national LSAMP pool in collaboration with AGEP and other NSF and New York State programs; (2)Using existing resources and information to identify students able to successfully complete doctoral degrees and to design and implement a program that helps students successfully complete two years of STEM graduate study and enter and complete doctoral study by integrating BD students into the existing network of activities and program to help them successfully complete a STEM graduate degree.
The project will add to current efforts by SUNY LSAMP to build research capacity in STEM education in the area of graduate education. The lessons learned from the study of the Bridge to the Doctorate Program will be put into the context of broader issues of systemic change and disseminated to a broader audience. Lessons learned will be strategically refined to help increase the number of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields who successfully complete doctoral degrees and eventually increase the number of well-prepared STEM professionals in the United States.
