The primary goal of the RISE Scholars Program at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is to increase the participation and retention of underrepresented minority students in biomedical research. Currently, the predominant minority undergraduate research training program on this campus is the MARC program and it only supports twelve Honors students. Although the overall goals of the MARC and RISE programs are very similar, the main difference between the UTEP RISE and the MARC programs is the distinct population of students that each program will recruit. The UTEP MARC program primarily focuses its efforts on Honors students in their last two years of college while the UTEP-RISE program will recruit students at all stages of their development, from the first year to the Ph.D. Furthermore, while the MARC program recruits the """"""""best"""""""" under-represented students, the RISE program will recruit students with a minimum GPA of 2.8. Furthermore, the RISE program will attempt to improve the GPAs and persistence rates of the RISE trainees in the biomedical sciences. The mentoring and academic activities of the UTEP-RISE program will also guide the trainees to a more successful academic career by helping them achieve and maintain higher GPAs in their last years in college. Those students that show signs of academic improvement and who are inclined to pursue a research/academic career will be recruited into the research component of the UTEP-RISE program. Another important component of the RISE program will be the recruitment and support of under-represented Ph.D. graduate students. There is a growing need to support minority graduate students due to an ever-increasing number of students seeking advanced degrees. Due to an increase in Ph.D. programs at this university, it has been projected that a large proportion of our graduate trainees will not receive financial support from the graduate division. It is therefore likely that under-represented minority students will be disproportionately affected by funding cutbacks since these students generally apply with lower GRE and GPA scores. The RISE program will provide a means to support deserving minority applicants and therefore help retain a high percentage of these students in our graduate program. ? ?
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