Scholarships to Enhance Recruitment and Retention of Underserved and Underrepresented Students in Biology

University Of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MO

Investigators

Abstract

This scholarship program continues a successful partnership between the University of Missouri-Columbia and high needs inner-city high schools in St. Louis. The focus is to provide scholarships for a minimum of 18 academically talented, financially needy students, enabling them to enroll in and complete a BA or BS degree in Biological Sciences. These Scholars are from populations that are economically disadvantaged and underrepresented in the sciences. The Scholars are identified before their senior year in high school, encouraged and enabled to achieve their best academic performance in their penultimate year of high school, and then provided direct academic and financial support while they are at the University. The long-term objective is to prepare the Scholars to enter highly respected graduate programs in major research institutions in the life sciences or to immediately enter the life science workforce. Throughout the Scholar's undergraduate program, the program emphasizes collaborative work, undergraduate research, the development of quantitative skills, and integrative approaches to critical problems in the life sciences. With a successful experience in this program and the strong partnership between the University and St. Louis high schools, the Scholars also inspire other students in their former high schools to seek opportunities to pursue undergraduate programs in science at research universities. Specific goals for the scholarship program are to: 1. Identify talented financially needy high school students prior to their senior year and work with them and their teachers to help prepare the students to succeed in Biology at the University of Missouri; 2. Provide sufficient scholarship support to meet their full financial need allowing these Scholars to enroll in the Biological Sciences at the University, whereas they would not have been able to do so without that support; 3. Provide academically challenging coursework, personal interactions with faculty, special mentoring, and undergraduate research opportunities for the Scholars; 4. Develop new student support services and career discovery activities for the Scholars; 5. Assure that the Scholars are retained through the academic 'danger points' in the undergraduate curriculum and complete a BA or BS degree in Biology; 6. Motivate and prepare most Scholars for acceptance into and successful completion of quality Ph.D. programs at major research institutions; 7. Motivate and prepare those not interested in advanced study for entry into BA/BS-level research positions in academia or industry or for positions teaching science in K-12; and 8. Thus increase the number of underserved and underrepresented students well prepared for creative research and teaching, and eventual leadership positions, in the life sciences.