The long term goal of this Minority Initiative-Baccalaureate Bridge between Wiley College and several two year colleges is to increase the number of Minority Students serving in biomedical careers. This program will educate at least 200 minority students in two year colleges about careers in biomedical research. Each two-year institution has designated a coordinator to guide and monitor the implementation of the transitional program. Upon enrolling in the program, students complete a personal history form which includes a career statement. Semester conferences with the campus coordinator are mandated. At this time, the personal history form is updated. If students must withdraw from the program, exit interviews are held. Financial aid is available at Wiley in the form of President's scholarships for students with a GPA of 3.6 or greater and academic scholarships for students with a GPA at least 3.0. Loans and work-study opportunities are also available so that no students will be turned away because of lack of funds. A plan is described to retain contact with program participants for at least five years after completion of a graduate degree. Thereafter, information is retained by the Alumni Office that has a state-of-the-art computer tracking system for all Wiley graduates. Wiley will work with the two year college faculty to provide specially designed chemistry and biology courses and techniques on how to teach them. In addition, a problem solving and creativity course is offered to improve the students reasoning capacities and creative skills. A scientific reading course was designed to improve individual performance in scientific vocabulary, methods of learning in content areas, writing and advanced reading comprehension skills and test-taking skills. This step is regarded as necessary since many students in the target population have had little or no science courses in high school to prepare them to take regular science courses in college. Here, team teaching with the two year college and Wiley college pairs or staff development courses for two year college faculty to be taught by master teachers at Wiley is proposed. During the summer months, Wiley students will participate with two year college students in research for eight weeks or more at a major research university or laboratory with which Wiley has a relationship. This includes The Wisconsin Medical College, Tulane Medical School, Baylor Medical College, University of Pittsburgh, Meharry, Howard University, Northwestern and others.
