A goal of New Mexico State University (NMSU) at Las Cruces, New Mexico, is to attain parity between the ethnic composition of its student body and the ethnic composition of the general overall population which the institution serves. To assist achievement of this goal for Native American populations located in isolated reservations and pueblos throughout the state, NMSU created branch-campus junior colleges in Grants and Alamogordo, NM, to serve Navajo, Zuni, Laguna, and Acoma groups in the north and the Mescalero Apache tribe in the southern parts of the state. A third junior college, located in Shiprock, NM, is the Navajo Community College which is governed by the Navajo Nation. The majority of Native American students from these institutions who transfer to four-year bachelor degree (B.S.) programs at NMSU, enter into engineering, business, or agricultural disciplines. A very small fraction are exposed to or are aware of career opportunities in biomedical research sciences prior to transferring to a B.S. program. Consequently, they choose alternative career options prior to arrival at NMSU in Las Cruces. This application requests support to develop programs that will introduce Native American students at these dime junior colleges to B.S. degree career opportunities in the biomedical sciences at a time when they choose their eventual career track. This will be achieved by the following activities: (i) twelve faculty from NMSU will organize and offer a biweekly seminar/lecture series at each junior college campus which will introduce Native American students to biomedically-related research programs in progress at NMSU; (ii) this seminar series will also serve as a mechanism to introduce students to active research-oriented faculty who will be prospective mentors for students who will eventually transfer to a B.S. program at NMSU and will participate in summer research projects at NMSU; (iii) four students from each junior college (12 total students) will visit the NMSU main campus once during each academic year for a three-day orientation program that will introduce them to potential faculty research mentors, the campus environs, research facilities, campus Native American support groups, actual classroom and laboratory experiences, and academic advisement mechanisms; (iv) four students from each junior college campus (12 total students) will conduct fulltime research with a faculty mentor during three summer months at the main campus of NMSU in Las Cruces after their freshman and/or sophomore years at their respective junior college campuses; (v) when these students transfer to B.S. programs that are allied to the biomedical field at NMSU (Biochemistry, Biology, Microbiology, Physics, Chemistry), they will be immediately assimilated into active, ongoing, successful research-oriented programs that can guide them to completion of the B.S. degree and which can provide them advisement for progression into postbaccalaureate graduate or professional schools; and lastly, (vi) opportunities will be provided for one science instructor from each junior college campus to participate in and conduct research in biomedically-relevant areas at NMSU during the summer months in order to enhance instructional capabilities at each junior college site.
