The State University of New York (SUNY) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SUNY LSAMP), under the leadership of SUNY-Stony Brook, will support 12 additional post-baccalaureate students during the 2011-2013 Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) program at the SUNY-Binghamton. This program builds on previous program efforts that have not only significantly added to the graduate enrollment and masters and doctoral degrees to students from underreprested minority (UREP) populations but have also led to important changes in the culture and practice of STEM education in ways that not only help UREP students but all graduate STEM students. The project adds to current efforts by SUNY LSAMP to build research capacity in STEM education in the area of graduate education. The lessons learned from the study of the Bridge to the Doctorate Program will be put into the context of broader issues of systemic change and disseminated to a broad national audience. Using the lessons learned from this project, the alliance expects to continue to develop and refine strategies that will increase the recruitment and retention of graduate students and further diversify graduate education departments. The strategy has the potenital to increase the number of UREP STEM students who successfully complete doctoral degrees in STEM disciplines and make changes in STEM departmental culture and practice.
The 2011 State Universirsity of New York (SUNY) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Cohort at Binghamton University (BU) successfully recruited 12 BD Fellows. The 12 BD Fellows were selected from 26 applicants, representeing 16 LSAMP undergraduate insitutions. The 12 Fellows were admitted into seven different majors at BU - Behaviorail Neuroscience (1), Biological Sciences (1), Biomedical Engineering (2), Computer Science (2), Electrical Engineering (2), Industrial & Systems Engineering (3), and Mechanical Engineering and came from differnent LSAMP instiutions - Binghamton University (4), Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (2), New Jersey Institute of Technology (2), Northeastern University (2), Rutgers (1), and University of Hawaii at Manoa (1). 10 of the 12 BD Fellows are completing their PhD programs at BU. Of those 10, 8 successfuly conferred masters degrees on enroute to the PhD. The 2 BD Fellows who are not staying for their PhD conferred their masters degrees and took jobs in industry. The BD Fellows attended sixteen different conferences while support by BD funds, presenting their research at twelve of those conferences. The BD Fellows also served as mentors for students in the BU CSTEP, EOP, LSAMP, McNair and SSS programs, encouraging underrepresented minority undergraduates to pursue STEM degrees. Intellectual Merit: The project added to current efforts by SUNY LSAMP to build research capacity in STEM education in the area of graduate education. The lessons learned were put into the context of broader issues of systemic change and disseminated to a broad national audience. Broader Impacts: Using the lessons learned from this project, we continued to develop and refine strategies that will increase the recruitment and retention of UREP STEM graduate students. These strategies may increase the number of UREP STEM students who successfully complete doctoral degrees in STEM disciplines and make changes in STEM departmental culture and practice.
