The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), a long term partner in the UT System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), proposes to sponsor a cohort of 12 talented, underrepresented minority (URM) Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) fellows during their first two years of doctoral training in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. The overall goal of this project is to advance the national and university goal of increasing the number of URM students who enter and successfully complete doctoral training in STEM fields and develop into leaders and role models in academic, government or industry sectors. The primary goal of the current proposal is to develop a sustainable and training environment that provides comprehensive support for new URM students as they transition into graduate education and begin to develop as research professionals. This will be accomplished through selective recruitment of prospective fellows to the exceptional training environment of UTSA, and implementation of a support and training program developed by melding of successful strategies developed at UTEP and UTSA, within the foundations of existing social-science and training literature. A secondary goal is to promote replication of this program or its components in other emerging research institutions with similar URM populations.
