Poster Abstracts

University of Arkansas

Strengthening Diversity in an Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at the University of Arkansas

Graduate degrees in Cell and Molecular Biology (CEMB) at the University of Arkansas are offered through an interdisciplinary program which involves faculty from several departments and colleges on the Fayetteville campus.  Two key programmatic tools for strengthening diversity in the CEMB program are the use of student sponsored activities and peer mentoring to empower students and facilitate student success. All students are required to participate each semester in the programmatic graduate student seminar program. This seminar is used as a device to help students learn presentation, grant writing and review, and plan an annual campus science symposium in which students of all disciplines can participate. Each step in the process, from concept to planning and budget management is coordinated and run by the students. With each student being given a critical component for the success of the endeavor, students learn to work with a diverse group of colleagues. Additionally, through an NSF sponsored Human Capital project, CEMB graduate students are asked to provide daily support and guidance for the undergraduate fellows. This reinforces the concept of mentoring and provides hands on, supervised, interactions with students. Finally, we have asked students from under-represented groups to participate in regional (LSLAMP) and national (HBCU) student STEM research programs, to assist in recruiting graduate students to the campus. This model of fully integrating students into the success of the program at multiple levels has been a key component to the growth and success of our interdisciplinary graduate program.