The Alabama Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) is a NSF Senior-Level Alliance and has an infrastructure that is uniquely positioned to implement a Bridge to the Doctorate (BD)program. Auburn University is the Alabama LSAMP BD site for 2012-2014. The University was established in 1856 and is a major state-assisted, comprehensive, Research I, land-grant institution with a long tradition of academic excellence and graduate education. Twelve LSAMP students will be selected from Alabama LSAMP partners and other LSAMP institutions across the nation to participate in the Alabama BD program beginning with the fall semester 2012. These new BD students will have the older BD students to provide peer consultations and networking opportunities. Selected BD participants will be assigned faculty mentors and have the opportunity to attend at least one professional scientific meeting each year. In addition, BD participants will be required to apply for an NSF Graduate Fellowship and attend special topic seminars regarding graduate school matriculation designed specifically for the program. A plan for formally connecting a significant number of newly matriculated LSAMP students to doctoral degree programs has been developed and participants will be tracked. The program will be evaluated at the end of the first semester of the 2012-2013 academic year and again at the end of the second year. Further, evaluation information will be forwarded to the Urban Institute for the general BD program review. The evaluation is designed to provide documentation of the performance of the designated site in retaining, graduating, and placing significant numbers of its minority graduates into doctoral-degree programs.
The project is an important step in advancing the knowledge of underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The experiences gained by these students working with science and engineering faculty will position them for excellent career advancement. The project broadens participation of underrepresented groups in graduate education with the real prospect of increasing the number of such groups in attaining doctoral degrees in STEM and entering the professoriate. Discovery and understanding resulting from this project will be disseminated via a national BD publication to other institutions and programs focusing on graduate education.
