PINE BLUFF, Ark. – The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) has been awarded $3.5M from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further support the Arkansas Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (ARK-LSAMP) program at UAPB. According to Dr. Mary Benjamin, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, the award is a testament to the collaborative work of eight Arkansas colleges and universities to help increase the diversity and workforce preparedness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates. With a shared vision and a well-defined set of interventions including a Pre-First Year Academy, internships, study groups, lecture series and select cohort grouping in Year I, and stipends, this Alliance currently enrolls 150 and has graduated 35. Among them is UAPB alumna Ashley Rich who is in her second year of a Ph.D. program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas State University alumnus Tony James who is in his first year of a Master’s program at Drexel University. The new award allows the Alliance to continue with an added emphasis on veterans and bridges to and from community colleges to four-year colleges and universities.
Members of the Alliance in the first award (2008) were Arkansas State University, Philander Smith College, Pulaski Technical College, Southeast Arkansas College, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas at Monticello, and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (Lead Institution). In the new award, Phillips County Community College has been added to the Alliance. The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is the lead institution.
Through ARK-LSAMP, there is an assembly and networking of a representative number of public and private institutions mobilized by the embracement of a common need to produce more well-qualified STEM graduates guided by a shared vision to help make Arkansas, the region, and the nation a more competitive force in the sciences to benefit the health and security of Arkansas.
“We are extremely pleased to receive our new grant award for the Arkansas Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation,” said Dr. Anissa Buckner, ARK-LSAMP Project Director. “We have implemented this program across the state at our Alliance institutions and the National Science Foundation recognized the hard work and dedication of our efforts with the program through a second award. Thank you to our Executive, Advisory and Coordinating Boards for all of their efforts to help obtain this award for our underrepresented students in the STEM disciplines.”
With the award, another two-year college, Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, has been added along with a section to include veterans in STEM areas.
For more information about ARK-LSAMP, call (870) 575-7113.
UAPB News 
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