# U-RISE at Tennessee State University

> **NIH NIH T34** · TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $268,399

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Tennessee State University (TSU) is a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) founded in 1912. A very
high percentage of TSU undergraduate students are from groups historically under-represented (UR) in
biomedical research. More than 95% of TSU undergraduates are UR with 79% African American, 2.1%
Hispanic, and 0.19% Native/Am. Indian. The proposed TSU Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for
Student Enhancement (U-RISE) program has the overarching goal of increasing the number of UR
undergraduate students who pursue the necessary education/training (Ph.D. degrees in biomedicine) to
engage in biomedical research careers. The TSU U-RISE program will provide the psychosocial resources,
course work, and research experiences needed for students to progress from undergraduate school to
graduate school (Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. programs). The proposed program will support 3 Junior and 3
Senior undergraduate students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology. A number of strategies
and activities are proposed to achieve the following specific goals of the program: 1. Increase the retention
and 4-year graduation rates of students who participate in the TSU U-RISE program above those of
TSU as a whole and of the departments participating in the TSU U-RISE program. The retention and
graduation rates of the proposed U-RISE program trainees would be expected to be greater than 90%. 2.
Prepare UR students who are pursuing a BS degree in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology to apply to
graduate programs in the biomedical sciences (specifically Ph.D. programs). The program will support 3
Junior and 3 Senior level students each year and aims to have a minimum of 2 of the 3 graduating students
(67%) applying to PhD programs within 2 years of graduating. 3. Provide the course work, research
experiences, and psychosocial resources (workshops, communities of practice, and learning
communities) needed for students to gain acceptance to those Ph.D. programs to which they apply.
Have 75% of those students who apply to Ph.D. programs (in a given 2-year period) gain acceptance within 2
years of graduating. 4. Develop critical thinking skills of TSU U-RISE trainees to prepare them for the
level of analytical rigor needed for graduate program admission and completion. The GRE is to some
extent a measure of these skills. The objective is to have average verbal and quantitative scores of 154 (64th
percentile verbal, 53rd percentile quantitative) for those students who take the exam. Another measure of
critical thinking skills will be the ability to critically discuss research papers, which will be assessed each
semester in the current biomedical topics course. 5. Develop the presentation skills of TSU U-RISE
program participants. Each of the first year U-RISE participants will present their research at a minimum of 2
scientific meetings per year (national, regional, or local). In the second year, students will present at 1 national
discipline specific...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10802379
- **Project number:** 5T34GM145334-03
- **Recipient organization:** TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** MARGARET M WHALEN
- **Activity code:** T34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $268,399
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10802379

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10802379, U-RISE at Tennessee State University (5T34GM145334-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10802379. Licensed CC0.

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