The Bioscience Scholars Program: Bringing the Master's Degree Within Reach

The intellectual merit of this project, Bioscience Scholars (BioS) at the University of Florida, stems from its goal of bringing a thesis-based BS/MS program within reach of low-income students, making the scientific profession and its community accessible to them and allowing them to achieve their maximum potential. The project targets students in a statewide high school biotechnology program who have already demonstrated an interest in biotechnology and acquired substantial technical skills, but lack the financial resources to complete a graduate degree. Scholars are provided coursework and workshops focused on foundational knowledge, critical thinking skills and technical skills, and are given the opportunity for extensive, mentored research experience. The BioS program leverages an institutional commitment so that scholars graduate with a combined BS/MS degree within five years.

Broader impacts include curricular reforms that affect all biology students at the University of Florida, not just the scholars. This program could serve as a national model of creating diversity because the targeted population from which students are recruited includes many underrepresented minority students. Finally, students in this program are trained to fill local needs in the job market in Florida's rapidly growing biotechnology sector.