The Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to Doctorate Program (LSAMP-BD) was awarded to UMES in May 2018, and began accepting students into the program in January 2019. Its goal is to help undergraduate LSAMP-students transition to graduate school careers, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the representation of underrepresented minority students at the PhD level. Students are eligible to join the program from nationwide programs.
Each of the four graduate programs that participate in the training of the LSAMP-BD cohort have, at their core, an emphasis on the land-grant mission of UMES. Studies in nutrient management, water quality, agricultural biotechnology, and natural resource sciences are unifying themes among these participating BD programs, collectively housed within the UMES School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences. The UMES Food and Agricultural Sciences, Toxicology, and Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Sciences (MEES) programs at UMES are to prepare students for careers within academia and government. They provide technical support to government agencies, industry, and public interest groups, and go on to varied careers in research science, food microbiology, and food security and safety.
Program co-PIs are Professor Joe Pitula from the Department of Natural Sciences and SANS Dean Moses Kairo. Currently, there are six students enrolled in the program: Edwina Barnett, Lenneisha Gilbert, Brandon Jackson, Feyisanmi Ojo, and Zachary Williams (FDST), and Reuel Danquah (Toxicology).
Gilbert recently won a first place award in the ecology, environmental and earth sciences category of graduate oral presentations at the 10th annual Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation. Her presentation was titled, “The Effect of Trap Crops on the Growth and Development of Watermelon.”
Pictured above, from left are: Zachary Williams, Reuel Danquah, Lenneisha Gilbert, Brandon Jackson and Dr. Joseph Pitula, associate professor, Department of Natural Sciences, MEES program director and Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship Program co-PI.
