The overall goal of the MBRS-RISE program is to increase the interest, skills, and competitiveness of students and faculty in pursuit of biomedical research careers. The goal of our proposed RISE program is to increase significantly the number of minority students pursuing biomedical careers by involving them in a number of curricular, research and co-curricular activities. SFSU enrolls large numbers of underrepresented minority students, with strong enrollment in each major ethnic category, and has an outstanding record of awarding significant numbers of baccalaureate and masters degrees to minority students. A significant number have gone on to enter biomedical research at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral level. While many earn PhD degrees, others enter medical, dental, and veterinary schools and later participate in clinical research. San Francisco State University (SFSU) has a proven commitment to preparing under represented students for PhD programs and biomedical careers and has developed a number of federally funded minority enhancement programs in the biomedical sciences. We have identified and addressed a number of barriers, which these undergraduate and graduate minority students face in meeting their goals for a future in the biomedical sciences. Continued funding of the MBRS RISE program at SFSU will allow us, in combination with our other funded programs (e.g. MARC, MS/PhD Bridge, SCORE, RIMI, SFSU/UCSF Cancer Center Collaborative), to provide the type of infrastructure and activities necessary to help significant numbers of students overcome these barriers. A set of well-defined and logically ordered activities has been developed to meet the specific needs of students at various stages of their careers (upper-division research-active and master's degree students). Each activity addresses the following needs: 1) achievement of academic program, 2) academic performance, 3) development of scientific and research skills and abilities, 4) preparation for acceptance to a PhD program. The outcomes of these activities will be critically evaluated by SageFox Associates and reasonable adjustments will be made during the term of the grant to assure that our goals and objectives are met. A review of the summative evaluations for the last 4 years of our current RISE grant, which are provided in the Progress Report, indicates our efforts have been very successful. We also have been successful in preparing SFSU students to continue beyond the bachelor's level to enter graduate biomedical careers. Over the past 4 years, 52 RISE students have entered PhD programs and 42 have been awarded biomedical PhD degrees.
The SFSU MBRS RISE program prepares SFSU undergraduates and master's students to continue into biomedical PhD degree programs in route to careers as research scientists. The partnership between the Minority Serving Master's I institution and a pre-eminent PhD granting institution to train SFSU MS students addresses workforce needs to prepare researchers to address health disparity issues.
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