9553315 Miller The Mid-South Alliance For Minority Participation (MAMP) consists of a coalition of nine Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) all within commuting distance in the tri-state area of three two-year colleges, and three majority colleges. The alliance contains the largest Tennessee community college, the largest Tennessee two-year technical institution, the largest tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) undergraduate institution, a private college with 47% majoring in engineering and science, the University of Tennessee In Memphis a predominantly graduate institution, three HBCUs, and the fastest growing community college in eastern Arkansas. It is an alliance of private colleges, minority colleges, community colleges, majority colleges,with African American community agencies and the secondary school system. One most probably should conclude the demographics of Tennessee (See Figure 1 on next page). Tennessee is a very long (480 miles) narrow state with the three largest cities 2000 miles apart with Memphis being the largest. Financially disadvantaged African American students cannot afford to travel several hundred miles to participate. the western section of tennessee is the Memphis section bordering West Memphis has the highest density of African American students in the Tennessee, and the neighboring counties in the tri-state area have a high concentration of African Americans. This Memphis Mid-South region has a minority population of 499,599, which is twice as large as the combination of the Nashville and the knoxville regions (13 counties each). Shelby county containing Memphis contains 371,267 year. 54% off all the youth in the city of Memphis are African Americans. 47% of the youth in the Mid-South region are African Americans while the Nashville and Knoxville regions are only 18.4% density of the African American population and youth decreases rapidly as one travel west to east as many African American youth as Nashville and 13.5 ti mes as many as the knoxville area. During the first year, 320 incoming minority freshmen and sophomore students will be prepared for completing baccalaureate degrees in SEM and eventually graduate degrees. The program consists of instruction, and personal development during the summer and mentoring and cooperative learning during the academic year followed by research and employment in science laboratories. 14,700 African American undergraduate students are already enrolled in these Mid-South Alliance colleges. The Mid-South Alliance intends to create a cadre of 800 minority students in the SEM baccalaureate programs each year. After the fifth year 160 more will be in the first year of graduate schools for a total of 960 per year. An additional 1000 African American students majoring in SEM baccalaureate programs each year. An additional 1000 African American students majoring in SEM studies will be influenced through auxiliary activities on the various campuses through seminary by visiting African American role models. The fact that we have nine active IHE's in the alliance within commuting distance allows us to work with small groups of twenty students and yet permit all the first year students to come together on minority and majority campuses for multicultural activities during our summer and academic year activities. This Alliance will provide a stimulating means for students to work their way through school with internships in science laboratories. African American role models working as mentors will meet in regularly scheduled classes for cooperative learning. Memphis Partners, one of the Alliances member, received a $3 million grant form the Dept. of Labor in July, 1994 in "young Fair Chance" to encourage African American into new careers, and provide African American mentors and science related internships. The Memphis school system received a $300,00 planning grant from the NSF, and opened an office of School Redesign and Training now funded by a private foundation. Their CEO is on the Advisory Committee of MAMP to improve bridging mechanisms from secondary to postsecondary institutions. Graduate schools and national laboratories will provide research experiences to Alliance students for the sophomores and juniors. The MAMP views laboratory research by the participants as extremely important to inspire students to continue for graduate SEM degrees. The pool of minority students will be increased through recruitment to SEM college degree programs from other disciplines, two-year colleges, and secondary schools. Mentors will assist and encourage all Alliance scholars to apply to SEM graduate schools.
