The Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) at the University of Virginia (UVA) attempts to address inequalities in the pipeline to graduate education and faculty careers by preparing underrepresented students for graduate study in education research. To assess program effectiveness, pre- and post-program data were gathered from 60 of 62 SURP interns who were both racially and socio-economically diverse. Paired samples t-tests showed that interns' confidence in their research competencies improved in nine out of 11 domains, indicating greater knowledge and skills upon completion of the program. We recommend that institutions enact the SURP theory of change developed at UVA to implement comprehensive programming to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds attending graduate school and ultimately seeking faculty careers. [This paper was published in the "Journal of College Student Development" 2020.]