PROJECT SUMMARY The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) proposes to establish a Bridges to the Baccalaureate program in partnership with two local associate's degree granting community colleges, Mercer County Community College (MCCC) and Brookdale Community College (BCC). Our proposed New Jersey Biomed-Bridge (NJBB) Scholars Program builds upon the strong partnership that has been established between our institutions. Over the past four years, a growing number of students from MCCC and BCC have successfully transferred to TCNJ. However, only a small fraction of these enrollments have been biomedically focused. The NJBB Scholars Program will provide financial and academic support to six students annually transferring from BCC and MCCC to TCNJ. Recently renewed articulation agreements as well as detailed curricular mapping between the biology and chemistry departments provided necessary first steps to increase the transparency of credit equivalency that students will receive from an Associate’s Degree in biology or chemistry from MCCC or BCC, and further define the expectations of students to complete the baccalaureate once at TCNJ. The NJBB Scholars Program will provide opportunities for courses that have an emphasis on current cutting edge biomedical techniques and technologies with a strong focus on multi-semester and summer involvement in research. Coursework, collaboration, independent research, internships, and highly structured mentoring will provide students with knowledge, science communication skills, ability to problem-solve collaboratively, and increase student confidence to join the biomedical workforce or to successfully pursue biomedical-focused graduate studies. Additionally, the community building afforded by this grant will strengthen the BCC- MCCC-TCNJ relationships for years to come. We will leverage our strengths and serve as a model to other institutions with an interest in building capacity for training and retaining students within the robust biomedical career pipelines that are so prevalent in the state of New Jersey. Organized by five overarching goals, we will determine our success by assessing the following outcomes: (1) Generate awareness of biomedical careers; (2) Provide and strengthen academic advising and clear curricular pathways for community college students to attain a bachelor's degree in four years; (3) Provide guaranteed independent research experiences and internship opportunities; (4) Develop and provide mentoring, professional development, and networking experiences which will further increase the NJBB students’ sense of belonging and identity as scientists; and (5) Increase the numbers of community college students prepared to enter the biomedical workforce.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The College of New Jersey in collaboration with Mercer County Community College and Brookdale Community college proposes an engaging, research-intensive experience in order to develop a diverse and skilled local talent pipeline for the biomedical sciences, an area of rapid growth in the New Jersey region. Our program initiatives will prepare trainees to gain the knowledge, skills, and identity needed for successful biomedical careers, which will contribute to expanding the public health workforce.