ECC, Roosevelt land minority health student grant

Elgin Community College and Roosevelt University announced Wednesday they received nearly $1 million to together increase the number of minority students studying biomedical and health sciences.

The $983,786 National Institutes of Health grant aims to help students transfer from ECC to baccalaureate programs in the sciences at Roosevelt over the next five years, said Tony Miksa, ECC's dean of math, science, engineering and health professions.

Between 50 and 100 ECC students will be selected to participate in the Bridges to Baccalaureate program, Miksa said. Students will first take courses in the health sciences at ECC, then study with Roosevelt professors and participate in lab research internships during summer sessions.

According to the National Institute of Health, participants are expected to achieve a number of goals in the next five years, including seeing at least 75 percent of program students successfully complete their bachelor's degrees in biomedical or behavioral sciences.

Miksa said the schools worked on the grant application for about a year and a half.

"We met with Roosevelt officials and put together a plan for how we'd organize a collaborative agreement," he said.

Officials hope that the program will be running by the Spring 2009 semester.

"We're going to be looking to put a program director into place, to get some guidelines written up to identify students, and get them enrolled in the program," Miksa said. "Hopefully by next summer we'll have students at Roosevelt doing research."