The Southwestern Idaho Bridges to Baccalaureate program (B2B) has been placing exceptional College of Western Idaho (CWI) students in research labs at Boise State University for the past five years. This year is no exception! CWI is pleased to announce students, Kari Felton and Ayana Pattison, have been selected as B2B Fellows and will join the program through 2024.
B2B was awarded a second five years of support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in August 2022, to help students overcome the barriers of obtaining their education. These barriers include the financial burden of higher education, the emotional stress faced by underrepresented students in the sciences, and the objective challenge of completing a rigorous undergraduate degree program.
The Southwestern Idaho B2B program addresses each of the challenges with a proven methodology from our past successes. The new NIH award goes even further than before in supporting students financially, contributing up to 60% of the full-time tuition and fees for each B2B Fellow. B2B program supports students emotionally through its unique mentoring program that matches the Fellows with past CWI students who have successfully transitioned to Boise State and have made their mark in the biomedical research community there.
Similarly, through specific B2B coursework, events, and cohort building we are addressing the challenge of degree completion by continuously engaging Fellows in academic life. Student engagement with peers, faculty, and experiences is one of the “Big Six” indicators of undergraduate fulfillment and, ultimately, their success in terms of degree completion and career readiness.
In the near future, the new Fellows will be matched with faculty research mentors at Boise State University and, before long, they’ll be leaving CWI and transitioning to the next step in their academic and professional careers.
CWI is very excited for them, proud of their accomplishments so far, and anxious to see their progress in this next phase of their educational journey. Congratulations again and good luck, Kari and Ayana!
The Southwestern Idaho B2B program is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
