Midwest Crossroads AGEP

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Midwest Crossroads AGEP Project SummaryThe primary goal of the Midwest Crossroads AGEP, which is an alliance between Purdue University WestLafayette, Indiana University Bloomington, and Northwestern University, is to triple the number ofunderrepresented minorities receiving doctoral degrees in STEM fields. Purdue, Indiana University (IU), and Northwestern have proposed a strategic plan to increase enrollments, improve retention, and prepare and encourage students to enter the academy. The key elements of the proposed plan are as follows Recruiting Linkages and partnerships with the Indiana LSAMP (based at Purdue), regional undergraduateinstitutions, and predominantly minority serving institutions nationwide will be developed and enhanced; offcampus visits by AGEP faculty, staff, and students will be organized to disseminate information on graduateschool opportunities at Purdue, IU, and Northwestern; and undergraduate summer research programs forgraduate school recruitment will be coordinated and expanded. Retention: Minority student organizations will be utilized to ensure that incoming graduate students have an instant peer network; a network of AGEP professors who are committed to graduating minority PhD students will be developed; selective jump-start summer transition experiences to acclimate new students academically to graduate school will be developed; and organized group study models will be developed and expanded. Enrichment: A special student enrichment session will be organized at the Crossroads Conference, a joint venture between AGEP and the Indiana LSAMP programs; college pedagogy courses and seminars and Preparing Future Faculty programs will be reorganized, marketed, and promoted on each campus; the Midwest Crossroads AGEP will keep current andleverage the faculty preparation activities of GEM and the National Preparing Future Faculty organization to maintain awareness of best practices and innovation in faculty preparation; and postdoctoral partnerships with will be developed with U.S. National Laboratories to provide exposure and prepare graduates for faculty positions. An administrative network will be developed to drive continuous improvement in the efforts listed above and to provide monitoring of progress. Intellectual Merit: The programmatic activities of the Alliance are built on proven models. However, a number of innovations are present with respect to implementation. A case in point is the strategy of giving ownership of minority student graduation to the department heads and the faculty. This in effect will allow diversity to be recognized in the reward system and thus lead to real institutionalization of the AGEP mission. Another novel aspect of the proposal is leveraging the post-doctoral programs at the U.S. National Laboratories to create a training ground for minority PhDs to enter the professoriate. This could help place many minority PhD graduates in top universities throughout the country. A third novelty we will explore (in conjunction with the conventional approaches) is keep ahead group study led by a paid student scholar. Rather than have the group study focus on review of lecture material, students in the session receive an advance previous of the lectures and thus are able to assimilate much more in lecture. This intermix of novelty with proven methodologies is anticipated to help the alliance triple itscurrent PhD graduation numbers. Broader Impacts: The Indiana LSAMP has already doubled its enrollment numbers in two years under the leadership of Purdue Provost Sally Mason. The Midwest Crossroads AGEP will build on the success of the Indiana LSAMP and create new pathways from undergraduate programs, both regionally and nationally, to the professoriate. The recruitment programs that we will initiate will span the Midwest and beyond through the involvement of a growing list of regional and national partners. Collectively, the efforts of the Midwest Crossroads AGEP will change the cultures at Purdue, IU, and Northwestern from diversity-passive to diversity-proactive.