Dr. Frazier and his team recognize that baccalaureate institutions need to improve recruitment of underrepresented minorities from two-year colleges and develop ways to ensure the retention of these students throughout their academic careers. The University of Kentucky (UK) is ideally suited to attack this problem because of its unique organizational structure of being a baccalaureate and graduate institution with fourteen (14) regional two-year schools. The goal of UK Bridges Project is to create an environment that will attract and nurture minority students transferring from the community colleges and enable them to continue their education in the biomedical sciences. Their specific objectives are to: (1) Establish positive images of the Lexington Campus and Medical Center as minority-friendly; (2) Increase the number of community college minorities interested in pursuing careers in the health sciences; (3) Provide dynamic research experiences for community colleges to encourage their interest in a science career; (4) Impact the biological sciences curriculum at the community college to ensure parity of course offerings; and (5) Develop faculty/student and student/student relationships to reduce the failure rate of transitional students. They propose to achieve these objectives through a series of activities which focus on recruitment transition and retention initiatives. Programs include: Academic Advising and Career Counseling, Research Apprentice Programs for students and faculty, Come see Yourself Programs, Biology and Chemistry Faculty Workshops, and the Tutorial Program. The UK Bridges Project has assembled a team which has the qualifications, experience, and commitment to design and administer these programs. They are confident that these initiatives will not only increase the number of minorities who transfer but will impact significantly on their ability to retain these students in baccalaureate programs.
