: The long-term goal of our Bridges to the Future Program is to encourage underrepresented minority (URM) students at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) to enter research careers in the Biomedical Sciences. The immediate goal of our program is to encourage MATC students to complete an Associate Degree program and transfer into the Baccalaureate Degree program in the Biomedical Sciences at UWM. The UWM-MATC and its partners will undertake a comprehensive approach to meet the needs of the students, faculty and the two schools through the successful implementation of the objectives which will facilitate the transition of greater numbers of underrepresented minority students majoring in the sciences from MATC to UWM. We have proposed innovative structured research support programs and enrichment activities that provide support services designed to improve the rate of entry and persistence of MATC students in our CHS research oriented bio-medical science submajor. This includes: a) offering URM students from MATC, research internships throughout the academic year with UWM faculty, b) offering summer research internships at UWM to URM students enrolled in the sciences at the two year institutions c) offering direct tutoring and mentoring to minority students enrolled in the sciences at the two-year institutions and d) enabling students from MATC to take courses and/or participate in seminar programs at UWM. We will also enhance faculty-to-faculty collaborations, which will allow for collegial exchange of ideas and research experiences. These programs are designed to enrich and facilitate curriculum development and faculty exchange between the institutions through direct faculty-to-faculty interactions, to establish avenues of URM student mentoring, and to provide exciting and stimulating opportunities for minorities to participate in meaningful research opportunities. We are confident that these comprehensive components will facilitate the transition of URM students from MATC to UWM, increase the number of URM students in Biomedical Science research, improve the ability of MATC and UWM to train and graduate promising URM students in Biomedical Sciences.
