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.
