CCNY psychologist Robert Melara is co-leader of the "Manhattan-Bridges" program that will bridge the path for CUNY community college students entering CCNY to pursue biomedical and behavioral sciences research.
The City College of New York is the recipient of a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to boost the number of racial/ethnic minority (REM) students in biomedical and behavioral sciences research. The funding will support a five-year project, Bridges to the Baccalaureate Research Training Program, or “Manhattan-Bridge,” whose goal is to bridge the path for students in those fields transferring from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC).
“Manhattan-Bridge is part of a strategic plan in the Department of Psychology to build a pipeline for REM students from community college to doctoral programs,” said project co-leader Robert Melara, professor and chair of psychology in CCNY’s Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.
The other two co-leaders on the project are BMCC Science Professor Alexander Gosslau and CCNY Psychology Professor Lesia M. Ruglass. Hawai Kwok is Manhattan-Bridge’s program director.
“I am very happy for the selected and talented students from BMCC to enable their smooth transition to prestigious City College in the CUNY network supported by this substantial grant,” said Gosslau.
Racial/ethnic minority researchers, who are uniquely poised to address disparities in mental and physical health, are underrepresented at all levels of the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Manhattan-Bridge program will help CUNY students enter biomedical and behavioral sciences research using a coordinated system of faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, peer support, diversity training, STEM coursework, laboratory training, tutoring, and supplemental instruction to address and overcome the obstacles known to impede our students from success in completing their bachelor’s degrees and launching their careers in biomedical fields.
Manhattan-Bridge expands on a highly successful CCNY onboarding program -- aptly named Student Success -- developed in the psychology department in 2016 to improve the retention of transferring community college students.
The Success program provided students in their first semester with course credit for weekly in-class meetings to address and overcome obstacles to success. This included discussion of empirical and theoretical papers, peer support and mentoring, awareness of campus resources, and networking practices. Outcomes of the 2016 class were then tracked.
“Results show that by 2020, 76% of Success students had earned their baccalaureate degree compared with 47% of controls. The Success program is a central programmatic feature of Manhattan-Bridge,” said Melara.
Manhattan-Bridge is the second initiative aimed at establishing City College as a premier training center for REM students pursuing careers in biomedical fields."
CCNY recently launched NEUROCITY, a collaboration with the University of Rochester, to assist CCNY graduates seeking doctoral training in neuroscience.
About Borough of Manhattan Community College
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) is part of the City University of New York (CUNY), awarding associate degrees in more than 50 fields and ranked #5 among community colleges nationwide in granting associate degrees to minority students, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. BMCC is a diverse teaching and learning community committed to advancing equity and the intellectual and personal growth of students. Working to strengthen a culture of care inside and outside the classroom, the faculty and staff of BMCC share a passion for learning with students from around the world, and strive to increase degree completion, successful transfer, career achievement and service and leadership within the BMCC community, New York City, and beyond. Visit BMCC.
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu