2011 FGLSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate - BD Site: University of South Florida

Florida Agricultural And Mechanical University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

University of South Florida will serve as the 2011-2013 Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Project site for the Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (FGLSAMP) Program. The goal of the program is that the alliance BD fellows admitted directly into doctoral programs will complete degree requirements in five years (post bachelors). In accordance with the goal of the National Science Foundation and FGLSAMP's commitment to providing experiential exposure opportunities, the new FGLSAMP USF BD Program extends the successful outcomes and best practices of previous training grant awards (AGEP, CREST BD, IGERT, GK-12 and Sloan) to all STEM fields, including mathematics, earth system sciences, biological & physical sciences and engineering/computer Science. The 2011-2013 cohort involves international research experiences and leverages the NSF-DoE Cooperative Activity to the graduate arena. The proposal improves an already successful mentoring and training model used in the previous cohorts to this selection of students and the entire USF graduate program. A unique feature of this program is that it leverages extensive institutional commitment from across USF, Sloan Foundation and McKnight Foundation with commitment from companies in the Tampa bay community and collaborators all over the world are committed to ensuring success of both, the trainees and the program. Since 2003, 14 STEM BD doctoral degrees have been conferred through the Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.