The focus of the Minority Undergraduate Biomedical Education Program is on developing a pilot demonstration programs at minority undergraduate institutions that will encourage the recruitment and retention of talented undergraduate students in biomedical sciences. With this goal in mind, Langston University proposes to create an Undergraduate Biomedical Education Program. The main focus of the Undergraduate Biomedical Education Program at Langston University is to train minority undergraduate students in life sciences who will enter and succeed, ultimately in graduate and professional programs in biomedical and behavioral sciences. With the development of the Undergraduate Biomedical Education Program, a new course curriculum will be added, strengthening and restructuring the life sciences curricula, courses, and laboratories. In addition, we plan to implement strategies to ensure that students are aware of, and well prepared for graduate school matriculation including an understanding of non-academic factors that are critical to success in graduate school. Currently, Oklahoma has 4 major doctoral degree-granting institutions. In addition, a major goal will be to develop a team approach in which partnerships will be established between faculty/researchers at Langston University and senior investigators from doctoral degree granting institutions. These institutions have a vested interested in the success of Langston University's proposed program. They too share a long-term goal of increasing the number of minority undergraduate students at their institutions. To strengthen our program further, these 4 major universities have agreed to serve on the Biomedical Education Advisory Committee, a steering committee responsible for directing, guiding and mentoring all aspects of the program. The funding providing by this RFA will be used to: 1. Provide student assistantships for the provision of tuition, room and board, and a stipend. 2. Provide travel support for presentation at scientific meetings. 3. Provide student support for summer research internships at Langston University and at partner institutions. 4. Provide support to maintain an Undergraduate Biomedical Education Program at Langston University.
