BRIDGES TO THE BACCALAUREATE

The Biology Department at California State University Fresno has a new program for valley community college students who are interested in exploring a possible career in biomedical research. This program which is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, will pay for training in research methodology, paid research opportunities in CSUF labs, and paid trips to biotechnology meetings at Cal Poly at Pomona. There is also a small stipend of $50.00 to help pay for books.

We are looking for 20 community college students who are interested in biomedical careers and who are willing to consider the possibility of a research career.

• Students must be currently enrolled in either freshman biology, chemistry, or physics.
• Students need to have summer time available for a short course and introductory lab experiences in the summer of 2001. We will be able to pay you an hourly wage for the lab work you do while learning new techniques.
• Students need to be available in the summer of 2002 for an eight to ten week supported research project ($2000). To qualify for this opportunity, you will be asked to work with your community college instructors in the development of a research proposal based on your first summer’s lab experience and your knowledge of the research agenda of the lab where you will work. These positions are competitive and will be available to about 2 students from each participating campus.

We also will make the following available to all 20 participants.

• An all expenses paid trip to the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology at Cal Poly, Pomona. The first meeting will be January 11-13, 2001. This is a student oriented statewide meeting attended by students, faculty, and biotech industry representatives. Students who are chosen for the summer 2002 research program will be encouraged to present their results at the following January meeting.
• Attendance at the Central California Research Symposium at CSU Fresno in April every year. Undergraduates and graduate students present many of the papers and, once again, students participating in the 2002 summer research program are encouraged to participate.
• Enrichment Instruction will be available for participating students (and interested students not participating in this grant funded program). This is designed to give you regular supplements to the instruction received in your introductory biology or chemistry courses. The emphasis of this supplemental instruction will depend on the courses taken by participating students.
• Career advising and program advising will be available to help students progress efficiently toward their degrees. The standard community college program, unfortunately, tends to add an extra year of study for biology and chemistry majors once they attend four year universities.
• Email access to the program director, Dr. Fred Schreiber, will be available so that questions about career, courses, college planning, and opportunities within the grant can be answered.

Contact your science instructors to apply.

There is an application form you can obtain at this site. You may also want to review the selection criteria at this site.