The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through the development of highly competitive students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African-Americans, Alaska Natives, American Indians, Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. The goal of the LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Activity is to increase the quantity and quality of STEM graduate students from underrepresented populations, with emphasis on PhD matriculation and completion. BD programs implemented in the nation's institutions of higher education contribute to addressing one of the objectives in NSF's 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, namely to "foster the growth of a more capable and diverse research workforce and advance the scientific and innovation skills of the Nation." The vision of this grant is to provide a national model to produce underrepresented scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees in STEM.
The performance site for this LSAMP BD Activity is the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia, one of the 14 college and universities included in the Louis Stokes South Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation (LS SCAMP). The goal of this project is to create the first BD program at the USC and to establish an evidence-based and sustainable program of recruitment, mentoring, and support of underrepresented minority (URM) students into and through STEM doctoral programs. In addition to providing substantial financial support to enable students to focus full time on graduate-level course work and research, the project, designed to advance BD students toward completion of doctoral level studies, will provide a bridge program for matriculating students and activities focused on communication, universal research skills, and acculturation to the research community. The programs are leveraged by extensive existing resources at the USC and are designed to facilitate the obtainment of doctoral degrees in five years. The BD program will create a community of URM scholars encompassing both sciences and engineering disciplines.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
