The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program is an alliance-based program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The overall goal of the program is to assist universities and colleges in diversifying the nation’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce by increasing the number of STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees awarded to populations historically underrepresented in these disciplines: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders.

The GABBR Alliance has been selected for funding by the NSF and will begin in the Fall 2017 semester. The goals of the GABBR Alliance are to (1) increase the quantity and quality of underrepresented minority (URM) STEM degrees, (2) increase the quantity and quality of underrepresented minority undergraduates (URMs) entering graduate school, and (3) investigate and disseminate the GABBR LSAMP model’s impact on recruitment, retention, success and graduation of target students from a social science research perspective.

Participating students will receive benefits such as scholarships, peer mentoring, free tutoring, research internships, travel to research conferences, summer bridge, summer and Saturday academies, study abroad programs, mathematics enrichment initiatives, and several academic workshops.

The GABBR Alliance is made up of eight institutions from the Greater Alabama Black Belt Region:

• Auburn University
• Auburn University Montgomery
• Alabama State University
• Enterprise State Community College
• Southern Union State Community College
• Troy University
• Tuskegee University
• University of West Alabama

GABBR encompasses eighteen counties in the Alabama Black Belt (Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Crenshaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Wilcox) and surrounding counties.

Ensuring STEM Success: Participation in the Bridge Mentoring Model is mandatory for NextGen STEM Pathways Foundation scholarship and internship recipients.