Kansas State University and three community college partners from southwest Kansas; Dodge City Community College, Garden City Community College, and Seward County Community College, have had a thriving Kansas Bridges to the Future partnership during the past sixteen years. With the recent change in the funding mechanism from an R25 to a T34, this new program proposal is seeking NIH support for a new five- year grant cycle in order to recruit talented individuals with unique perspectives and experiences to the biomedical workforce. To date, 143 students from first generation, and often immigrant families, have benefitted from the Kansas State University Bridges to the Baccalaureate training program. The families of the majority of the Bridges to the Future students have migrated from Spanish-speaking countries to work in the meat packing plants and agricultural industries where they work long hours and encounter numerous financial, health, language, and cultural challenges. Thirty-five Bridges students are currently enrolled at K- State; and at least 39 have pursued advanced research degrees or entered professional health programs. Community college students are ready to enroll in Bridges pending funding. This proposal shows solid support from all four colleges to maintain a critical and successful pathway for Bridges students to enter the university: 1) by building relationships with the students and their families while at the community colleges; 2) by bringing students and their families to K-State to help them become familiar with the larger campus, the support staff, and previously matriculated Bridges students; 3) by providing an established, highly successful undergraduate research program, the Developing Scholars Program, to support them academically and personally; and 4) by providing seminars, workshops, lab experiences, and research internships to help students explore their options in STEM disciplines for biomedical careers. Through the Bridges program, students are prepared to succeed in graduate and professional programs, and to establish thriving professional careers. Kansas State University will continue to provide 40% tuition for 1.5 years followed by 100% tuition for 0.5 years of study at the university, thus removing cost-related barriers that are often insurmountable for underrepresented students. Each of the community colleges will also continue to provide tuition scholarships to Bridges students to complete their associate degrees. The overall goal of this project is to provide biomedical research training and mentoring in order to increase the number of underrepresented students with baccalaureate degrees in STEM disciplines for future careers in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences. Further, this project will support the goals of the National Institutes of Health for enhancing public trust, solving complex problems, increasing the likelihood that health disparities and the needs of underrepresented populations are addressed in biomedical research, and ensure a diverse pool of highly trained biomedical scientists.

Project Narrative Kansas State University will partner with three community colleges in southwest Kansas to continue a highly successful Bridges to the Future Baccalaureate program under the new T34 funding mechanism. The overall purpose of K-State's Bridges program is to increase the number of underrepresented students with baccalaureate degrees in biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences, and to set into motion pathways designed to increase the number of PhDs, MDs, and other professional doctorates in those fields. Our proposal will provide authentic research experiences within biomedical science labs, additional research training and mentoring, and professional skills development in an inclusive and supportive environment in order to assist the National Institutes of Health in recruiting talented individuals with unique perspectives and experiences to the biomedical workforce.