DESCRIPTION OF THE BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE PROGRAM AT NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY:
“BRIDGES TO NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES”

The National Institutes of Health has funded a Bridges to the Future Program at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces (NMSU) since October of 1992. The program at NMSU is entitled: “Bridges to Native American Students in Community Colleges.” This program has the goal to develop and implement mechanisms that introduce Native American students at four regional community colleges in New Mexico and Arizona to baccalaureate degree (BS) career opportunities in the biomedical sciences. Participating community colleges include Dine' College (formerly Navajo Community College) at Shiprock, NM, Dine' College (formerly Navajo Community College) at Tsaile, AZ, the University of New Mexico Gallup Branch in Gallup, NM, and San Juan College at Farmington, NM. Collectively, these four institutions annually enroll more than 6,000 Native American students. This is the highest enrollment concentration of Native Americans in post-secondary education in the USA. Formal programmatic activities were first initiated in January 1993 and have continued thereafter.

Features of the program have included the following activities: Twenty faculty members from the molecular bioscience disciplines at NMSU provide biweekly seminars/lectures/workshops at each community college campus as a means to introduce Native American students to biomedically-related research programs being conducted at NMSU. This seminar series also serves to introduce students to active research-oriented faculty who are prospective mentors for students. Students who are interested in a full-time summer research position visit the NMSU main campus during the academic year for a two-day orientation program in early March. This visit introduces students to potential faculty research mentors, the campus environs, research facilities, campus Native American support groups, actual classroom and laboratory experience, and academic advisement mechanisms. Sixteen to eighteen students are selected from these audiences to participate in summer research projects on the campus of NMSU during the summer months. These full-time summer research positions pay $2,000 per month plus housing costs while at the Las Cruces campus for nine weeks (through July 31st). Students are also given the opportunity to attend and present their research results to a science symposium of some type, either the annual meeting of AISES, SACNAS, or MBRS/MARC (ABRCMS) Programs. When these students transfer to BS degree programs that are allied to the biomedical field at NMSU (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biology, Microbiology, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Plant Sciences), they are immediately assimilated into active, ongoing, successful research-oriented programs that can guide them to completion of a BS degree. Students also receive advisement for progression into post-baccalaureate graduate or professional schools.

Collectively, two-hundred twenty three (223) Native students have participated in summer research projects at NMSU during the summers of 1993-2009. These students have included representatives from the Choctaw, Cherokee, Navajo, Zuni, Mescalero Apache, Laguna, Isleta, White Mountain Apache, Ute, and San Juan Tribes. Seventy percent (70.4%) of these students have subsequently matriculated to BS programs at major universities. Sixty-seven percent (67.4%) of those who have transferred have completed BS degrees in the science disciplines. Forty percent (40.3%) of those completing BS degrees have entered graduate schools where they have completed 21 MS degrees, 6 PhD degrees, and 8 PhD degrees are in progress. This BRIDGE Program has recently been refunded with a five-year grant from NIH through January 2015. For more information, please contact Vanessa Fisher in the Bridge Program Office at phone number 575-646-5092, Chemistry & Biochemistry BuildingRoomW377, or Dr. Glenn D. Kuehn, Regents Professor of Biochemistry at phone number 575-646-1015.

Glenn D. Kuehn, Ph.D., Regents Professor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Director and Principal Investigator, NIH-Supported Bridge Program.
July 28, 2010