University of South Florida will serve as the 2009-2011 Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Project site for the Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (FGLSAMP) Program. In accordance with the goal of the National Science Foundation and FGLSAMP?s commitment to providing experiential exposure opportunities, the new FGLSAMP USF BD Program extends the successful outcomes and ?best practices? of nine previous training grant awards (BD, IGERT and GK-12 and Sloan) to all STEM fields, ? mathematics, earth system sciences, biological & physical sciences and engineering/computer Science. This proposal extends a successful mentoring and training model used in the previous cohorts to the entire USF.
A unique feature of this program is that it leverages extensive institutional commitment from across USF, Sloan Foundation and McKnight Foundation with commitment from companies in the Tampa bay community and collaborators all over the world are all committed to ensuring success of both, the trainees and the program. This commitment will result in 7 additional two-year fellowships awards (supplementing the 12 NSF-funded BD Fellowships for a total of 19 two-year BD Fellowships) as BD Fellows. Additionally, the non-USF commitments secured for this proposal will enable institutionalization of funding packages averaging $30,000 per year in years 3-5 of the traineeship, from endowed fellowships and external programs. This has been complemented with national and international internship opportunities.
The program leverages NSF dollars with $900,000 in student and program support (fellowships tuition waivers, administration) from USF; $600,000 in Sloan Doctoral Fellowships for students continuing towards their Ph.D., and $900,000 from the Florida Education Fund. Thus, this program is leveraged by $2,500,000 of non NSF funds. Every dollar from NSF will result in at-least $2.5 in matching support.
Our goal for this cohort is to ensure that 100% of the students complete their Ph.D, with transformative mentoring, retention and community building strategies. Additionally, the USF BD Project will serve as a national model for the synergistic and formal connection of LSAMP BD fellows with other NSF supported programs (GRFP, IGERT, GK-12, CREST, AGEP, LSAMP, etc.), enable students to gain an international level research perspective via didactic coursework and research experiences, receive research training at national labs (Brookhaven, NIST) that will provide a ?bridging? mechanism for postdoctoral appointments and permanent employment; and develop technical, communication and research skills.
The cost of education allowance provided by the NSF supplement will be utilized to: 1) facilitate the BD Fellows' research and training activities; 2) conduct professional development activities and special BD course-related activities; 3) co-sponsor an annual FGLSAMP BD and GK-12 research symposium for graduate fellows from the respective programs to present their research; 4) cover travel costs for the BD Fellows to present at NSF LSAMP/AGEP research conferences; 5) support travel for extended research experiences at national labs; 6) cover costs associated with sponsoring the BD Fellows' participation in GRE exam preparation courses and retaking the GRE exam (this should result in their increased competitiveness for national external and internal USF fellowships); 7) foster international research-training for BD fellows with international partners and collaborators; and 8) provide health insurance coverage for all BD Fellows.
With a goal towards institutionalization of minority graduate STEM fellowship opportunities, USF has already established two Alfred P. Sloan Minority Fellowship programs in eight different academic programs, two endowment funds in College of Marine Science for minority BD students to which more than $900,000 has already been committed.
