From Prison to Professionals (P2P) is a non for profit organization dedicated to providing justice-involved people with meaningful and sustainable education and workforce development opportunities in STEM.
P2P, in partnership with Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) and Howard University (HU) College of Medicine, has created an innovative prison-to-college-and-STEM pipeline and will provide a direct and dedicated pathway to an associates degree and bachelors degree for graduating scholars of P2P in the STEM field.
The Bridges to Baccalaureate (B2B) program is a creative STEM training program that will recruit four (4) scholars annually via a rigorous review process. The B2B Scholars will (i) be provided educational readiness by P2P (some) while still incarcerated, (ii) transition to 2-year associates granting school (BCCC), (iii) be provided skills and methods development while at BCCC, (iv) participate in a 10-week STEM research internship at Howard in the summer in between years 1 and 2, (v) then transition to Howard University, upon completing their associate's degree at BCCC.
The program addresses:
1. Skills development: gained via the Leadership, College & Professional Readiness, and SAT portions of the P2P program and Intro to Research Workshops that will be implemented during the community college time span.
2. Research Experience: obtained via a 10-week internship with one of nearly 20 collaborating investigators at Howard University. Additionally, scholars will attend a national meeting to present their work.
3. Curriculum and Methods: supplemented by instruction for gateway courses, development including a molecular techniques course incorporated into General Biology (BCCC BTC 105 - Techniques and Instrumentation for Biotechnology)
4. Recruitment Plan: P2P works with over 100 individuals annually in their actively running program. Priority will be given to select the top four people in the P2P program interested in STEM.
5. Retention Plan: The B2B program will provide incentives: 60% tuition scholarships, yearly stipends, paid summer research internships, and mentoring opportunities to give back.
Bridges to the Baccalaureate (NIH T34) - Program Goal (as stated by the NIH)
(See T34 FAQ linked here)
To develop a diverse pool of research-oriented undergraduates who transition from an associate degree-granting institution to a baccalaureate degree-granting institution and complete a baccalaureate STEM degree, positioning them to pursue research-oriented biomedical higher degree programs or enter careers in the biomedical research workforce.
Who is eligible to participate in the NRSA T34 program?
Trainees must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time of appointment. (A noncitizen national is a person who, although not a citizen of the U.S., owes permanent allegiance to the U.S. This is generally a person born in a land that is not a state but that is under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or administration—for example, American Samoa.) An individual lawfully admitted for permanent residence must possess an alien registration receipt card (I-551) before the appointment on the grant. Individuals on temporary visas, those seeking asylum or refugees, or those supported through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are not eligible for support through NIH NRSA programs. Trainees must be matriculating full-time in baccalaureate or graduate biomedical science degree programs at the applicant institution
