Bridge to the Doctorate at UMBC 2011-2013

University Of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

The University System of Maryland (USM) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) will build upon its success of training and educating Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Fellows by proposing a program for a sixth cohort. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is the lead institution of a senior-level LSAMP and has been designated as the BD site for 2011-2013. UMBC is dedicated to recruiting, retaining, educating, and training underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, and preparing them for success in the STEM workforce. UMBC welcomed its first cohort of BD Fellows in 2005. Three of those Fellows completed Ph.D.s during 2010-2011. Others from that cohort are persisting in doctoral programs (full-time and part-time) or have received M.S. degrees and remain in touch with UMBC's BD Program as they plan to return for the doctorate. (One 2005 BD Fellow is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah, and another will begin the D.Eng. program at Morgan State University in fall 2011.) The USM has four additional cohorts of fellows on both the UMBC and the University of Maryland, College Park campuses. The Fellows connect with one another at BD training, professional development, and community building events. The USM LSAMP began in 1995 and has been vigilant about increasing the number of underrepresented minority baccalaureate degree recipients in STEM disciplines. The BD award will enable us to strengthen both our undergraduate and graduate pipelines and create an expanded community of scholars within these disciplines. Plans for the 2011-2013 cohort include activities that will begin during the fellows' first week on campus. The program includes extensive orientation activities such as a 2-day Summer Success Institute, the Graduate School Orientation, and multi-day orientations with faculty within the STEM departments. In the first year, the Fellows will be assigned a Peer Mentor; apply for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship; receive training in public speaking; and complete a 30-50 page research preparation project that will require them to network with other graduate students, faculty, and BD Fellows at universities outside of the USM. Throughout the two years, BD Fellows will participate in bi-weekly BD meetings, attend monthly Graduate Student Success Seminars, and participate in academic and professional development seminars with other graduate students and faculty. By the end of the second year, the BD Fellows will have learned and implemented methodologies for achieving academic excellence, completed credits for the M.S. degree or early qualifying milestones toward the doctorate (varies according to department), completed 10 hours of UMBC's "Professors-in-Training" modules, presented at two research conferences, participated in numerous networking opportunities with faculty, attended workshops on thesis completion and dissertation proposal planning, and developed a plan for persisting to finish the doctorate.