The central goal of the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to the Doctorate Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is to increase the number of underserved populations who attain access to graduate education. The program provides Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) students with the academic and professional social skills to function at the highest levels of competency. Pre-matriculation, staff and faculty monitoring, research lab rotations, research projects and professional interactions along with intensive evaluation protocol helps to ensure that these students complete their PhD or MD/PhD. Upon completion of the program, the BD students will be ready to go into a postdoctoral program at any institution in the country or to obtain upper level STEM employment. One of the creative aspects of these activities is the inclusion of MD/PhDs among the cadre of PhD students that are being produced.
The Illinois LSAMP BD Program at UIC has four primary objectives:
1. To recruit a minimum of twelve highly motivated students from local and regional LSAMP alliances to UIC PhD programs; 2. To prepare matriculating BD Fellows to study and train towards the PhD; 3. To facilitate activities that will encourage BD Fellows to persist in PhD studies; and 4. To implement a series of activities designed to enhance the education and training of Illinois LSAMP BD Fellows and help them transition to postdoctoral fellowships, placement in the academy, or other positions requiring doctoral level STEM education.
Ethnic minorities comprise a disproportionately small fraction of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty in the STEM disciplines, including health sciences. The Illinois LSAMP BD Program at UIC will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups including women, ethnic and racial minorities. The program will not only help to close the gap created by the paucity of underrepresented individuals who are functioning creatively at the PhD level, it will also encourage others who have been reticent to attempt graduate work because of the lack of qualified role models.
