A consortium of three colleges(Harold Washington, Olive Harvey and Harry S.) of the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), an associate degree college, in collaboration with University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a BA/BSc, MS and PhD degree granting institution, wishes to implement Bridges to Baccalaureate. The partnership represents commitment of resources and will involve identifying, recruiting, educating, mentoring, and supporting the scientific research interest of 90(30 annually, Underrepresented Minority (URM) students from CCC to transfer to UIC and other 4-years colleges and complete their degrees in behavioral and biomedical disciplines. In Fall 2004, the three colleges had a combined headcount enrollments of 20,999. Of these, 15,048 (HWC-7,048; HTC-5,003; OHC- 2,997) are credit students, made up of Asian 11%; Native American 10.6%; Black/African Americans 49.2%; Hispanic/Latinos 17.4%; and Whites 19.6% . We are targeting students seeking Associate of Science and Associate of Applied Science degrees. The involvement of URM's, especially Blacks and Latinos, in behavioral, biomedicine and biomedical research is very crucial to achieving the health promotion and disease prevention objectives of Healthy People 2010 because their communities are more proportionately represented in mortality and morbidity data. Paradoxically, their number in scientific research or as scientists is very small due to many barriers. We would ameliorate the barriers by : 1) Operation a Center for Science Success (CSS); 2) identifying and selecting qualified interested students from the CSS pool in to the Bridges to Baccalaureate; 3) ensuring the training of URM's and enable them to acquire competence in the application of computers for independent study and research; 4) exposing URM's to opportunities and possibilities in behavioral and biomedical sciences through participation in relevant research seminars, conferences and interactions with scientists; 5) providing an Intensive Summer Research Opportunity; and 6)by developing a Buddy system between alumni and current Bridge participants. The program will engage students for 20 hours in fall; 40 hours in spring and 280 hours in summer and include laboratory work, seminar, enrichment activities, and mentoring, retention services that would ensure transfer to UIC and 4-year colleges with a major in behavioral and biomedical sciences. The project will be rigorously evaluated and students will be tracked. We expect over 75% of students to transfer to 4-yr College. In 2002 to 2005, we had a retention rate of 96% and a significant proportion of our students are pursuing biomedical degrees at UIC and other 4-year institutions. ? ? ?
