Cathleen Williams and Louis J. DeFelice speak to the crowd at the seminar, encouraging more minority students to pursue graduate work.
Stephanie Duell presents the results of her summer research project.
A recent set of seminars highlighted the success of participants in Vanderbilt’s Minority Bridges Program. The National Institutes of Health-funded program provides a path from the Master’s degree to the Ph.D., with the goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities entering careers in biomedical research.
The Bridges program joins Vanderbilt University and seven partner institutions: Barry University in Miami, Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University in Alabama, and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Master’s degree students at these universities are eligible for the program, which offers summer research opportunities, a summer course called “Preparing for the Ph.D.,” the possibility of completing Master’s thesis research at Vanderbilt, and support of applications to Vanderbilt’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program or to Ph.D. programs at other universities.
Fourteen partner university students completed research projects at Vanderbilt this summer. Louis J. DeFelice, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology, is the program director and Cathleen Williams from the Office of Minority Affairs is the program coordinator.