BUILDing SCHOLARS: A program exemplar at a Hispanic serving institution to develop biomedical researchers.

The student development initiatives of the BUILDing SCHOLARS Center at The University of Texas at El Paso comprise a program intended to prepare undergraduate students to enter and succeed in advanced graduate and professional biomedical degree programs, ultimately contributing to the diversity of the biomedical research workforce. The program adopted the Johnson/Bozemann Asset Bundles model, which recommends addressing five areas necessary to support minority students as they prepare for and continue towards scientific careers: a) educational endowments, b) science socialization, c) network development, d) family expectations and e) material resources. Through a variety of activities, which included a minimum of two years of research training, all five asset bundles were integrated into the program.

Retention and Graduation of STEM Students at a Majority Hispanic Serving Institution: Effect of Participation in a Freshman Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Sequence.

Research training is an important intervention for preparing undergraduate students to pursue further studies and develop research skills. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence indicating that mentored research impacts student success metrics. At the University of Texas at El Paso, a Freshman Year Research Intensive Sequence (FYRIS) was developed to prepare first-year students for research experiences.

Hispanic/Latinx STEM Majors Applying to Graduate School: The Role of Family, Peers, and Undergraduate Research Programs in Facilitating Community Cultural Wealth.

This paper examines the critical transition from undergraduate to graduate biomedical education and focuses on Hispanic/Latinx students who participated in a biomedical undergraduate research program at a Hispanic-Serving Institution located on the US-Mexico border. We use the community cultural wealth (CCW) framework (Yosso, 2005) to analyze 13 qualitative interviews about students' experiences applying to graduate school in biomedical fields and how different program activities allowed students to navigate the graduate school application process. Our findings suggest that different programmatic activities (research experiences, research mentorship, workshops, family involvement, and advising) facilitated students' graduate school application process by enhancing different types of cultural capital: aspirational, familial, social, navigational, and resistant.

Institution-Wide Analysis of Academic Outcomes Associated with Participation in UGR: Comparison of Different Research Modalities at a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Most studies on the benefits of participation in undergraduate research (UGR) use data from student participants in undergraduate research programs (URPs), which offer a limited number of positions. In reality, however, the majority of UGR students participate in undergraduate research not in programs (URNPs). The authors conducted an institution-wide study at a Hispanic-serving institution to examine the relationship between academic success and participation in these two UGR modalities.

The Moderating Effect of Faculty Mentorship on Undergraduate Students' Summer Research Outcomes.

Summer undergraduate research experience (SURE) programs are proven interventions that provide undergraduate students with opportunities to develop research skills under the mentorship of a faculty member. These are essential programs, particularly for members of underrepresented minorities, because SUREs are known to broaden their participation and increase retention. We present the results of a study investigating the influence of faculty mentorship quality on the quality of research presentations for undergraduate students attending a 10-week, distributed, multi-institutional SURE program focused on biomedical research training.

Baseline Characteristics of the 2015-2019 First Year Student Cohorts of the NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program.

Objective: The biomedical/behavioral sciences lag in the recruitment and advancement of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In 2014 the NIH created the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), a prospective, multi-site study comprising 10 Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutional grantees, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and a Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC). This article describes baseline characteristics of four incoming, first-year student cohorts at the primary BUILD institutions who completed the Higher Education Research Institute, The Freshmen Survey between 2015-2019.

IMPACT OF OPEN ENROLLMENT IN COURSE-BASED UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCES WITH AT-RISK STUDENT POPULATIONS.

Participation in authentic research activities, particularly mentored undergraduate research experiences, at the University of Texas at El Paso has long been associated with student success measures such as graduation and matriculation to strong graduate programs in STEM. However, these opportunities typically are available to upper division students, despite evidence suggesting that the first (Freshman) year at university is determinant for individuals to complete STEM degrees. To expand the number of research opportunities and to extend them preferentially to new, entering students, we established the Freshman Year Research Intensive Sequence (FYRIS) in 2015, a course sequence consisting of a research foundations course and one or two laboratory courses redesigned by faculty into small, special topic Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs).

BUILDing SCHOLARS: enhancing diversity among U.S. biomedical researchers in the Southwest.

Background And Purpose: With funding from the National Institutes of Health, BUILDing SCHOLARS was established at The University of Texas at El Paso with the goal of implementing, evaluating and sustaining a suite of institutional, faculty and student development interventions in order to train the next generation of biomedical researchers from the U.S. Southwest region, where the need is dire among underserved communities.

Undergraduate Research Participation Is Associated With Improved Student Outcomes at a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Few scholars have comprehensively examined benefits of undergraduate research (UGR) participation for students at an institution campus-wide. In this study we examined benefits of UGR participation at a Hispanic-majority institution using National Survey of Student Engagement data. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the influence of UGR participation on 5 student outcomes: gains in knowledge and skills, institutional support, overall satisfaction, grade point average, and student-faculty interaction.

Factors Influencing Student Gains from Undergraduate Research Experiences at a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) confer many benefits to students, including improved self-confidence, better communication skills, and an increased likelihood of pursuing science careers. Additionally, UREs may be particularly important for racial/ethnic minority students who are underrepresented in the science workforce. We examined factors hypothetically relevant to underrepresented minority student gains from UREs at a Hispanic-serving institution, such as mentoring quality, family income, being Latino/a, and caring for dependents.