The US Census Bureau reports that African, Hispanic, and Native Americans comprise some 30% of the US population, however only 16% of the undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and less than 3% of the doctoral STEM degrees produced within the US are awarded to students from these groups! It is in the nation?s best interest to support innovations that test strategies to increase the success groups underrepresented in the STEM disciplines, not simply for reasons of equity or social justice, but because these students are an untapped potential in fulfilling the STEM workforce needs of today and tomorrow. The proposed, ?BD-Cohort 5 ? LA-BRIDGE: Louisiana Broadening Resources for Increasing Diversity in Graduate Education,? represents a transformative and strategic institutional approach to build human resource capital at the doctoral level. In this endeavor, Louisiana State University (LSU), a state-supported Carnegie Research Extensive Institution, nationally designated as both land-grant and seagrant, will serve as the Bridging Institution. The project features strong inter-institutional collaborations between colleges and universities throughout the Senior Level Louis Stokes (LS) Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LAMP); intra-institutional collaborations between the LSU Offices of Academic Affairs, Strategic Initiatives, and Research and Economic Development as well as the LSU Center for Academic Success; and international collaborations between LSU and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission in Grenoble (CEA Grenoble). The vision of LA-BRIDGE is to create a successful model to increase minority student persistence and global competitiveness at the doctoral level, an effective model with well-tested strategies, which can be adopted nationwide. The goals of LA-BRIDGE are a logical extension of the goals of the LS-LAMP Senior Alliance: (a) to increase the quality and number of minority STEM students pursuing doctoral degrees at the bridge institution; (b) increase the retention to graduation rate of minority STEM PhD students; and (c) investigate a national model for increasing the share of minority STEM PhD holders. The objectives of LAMP-BD are: (1) to provide systemic mentoring that includes effective faculty-to-student/student-to-student interactions that work collectively to increase the number of minorities earning PhD degrees in STEM fields; (2) facilitate academic support structures that increase students? acclimations to the rigors of doctoral study; and (3) expose minorities to international research experiences that prepare them for long-term scholarly engagement in the global STEM research enterprise; (4) to promote, guide and support the transition of these PhD degree-holders into the STEM research workforce with emphasis on the professoriate; and (5) to achieve self-sustainability by expanding, and institutionalizing the systemic mentoring, and research infrastructure enhancements and activities across the state. Intellectual Merit: LA-BRIDGE will provide strategic and transformative leadership in designing effective LS-LAMP inter-institutional and multi-national alliances that improve the quality of STEM education for PhD students. This project will cultivate and test systemic mentoring strategies that have been designed to increase minority student matriculation and graduation from PhD programs. Moreover, the project will explore models to enhance the ability of LSAMP students to be more effective researchers in a global environment. The scientific basis of the mentoring model and its related activities, the publication in system mentoring and educational research, lend themselves to the development of best practices for graduate education and professional development. Further, the research to be conducted by BD scholars will contribute to scientific and technological innovations spanning the STEM disciplines. Broader Impact: LA-BRIDGE will increase minority student access to STEM PhDs. The salient project impacts are a) the increase in the number of high quality PhD level researchers from underrepresented minority communities who will pursue research careers in the STEM academic, industrial, and governmental enterprise; b) the consequent contribution to and the development of a more qualified and diversified workforce; c) the wide-spread dissemination of the best practices of system mentoring for graduate studies and professional development; and d) the significant enhancement of institutional graduate education and research infrastructure. Further, this project will benefit society by enhancing the ability of its graduate students to thrive in an international research environment
