UMEB: Fostering Student Confidence and Capability in Environmental Science

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The goals of this UMEB project are to (1) recruit more underrepresented undergraduate students into Environmental Biology through exciting research experiences, (2) encourage the intellectual and personal development of students so that they may succeed within the environmental science (ES) community, and (3) increase the numbers of underrepresented students entering graduate programs in Environmental Biology. The program targets students in their sophomore and junior years, after they have learned some basic principles and skills but before their career aspirations have become fixed. Effective mentoring of students in meaningful research is key to meeting project goals. Mentors are trained to provide guidance in research and intellectual issues, career advice, curriculum counseling, and issues of personal growth. UMEB students participate year round in research teams that are organized within a single science theme: Multidisciplinary Investigation into Society's Environmental Problems. Students work on a range of projects from speciation mechanisms to spatially explicit population models. Through seminars and informal gatherings, students build a sense of community and purpose by comparing their work in diverse systems.CSULA is a cosmopolitan minority serving institution where minority group members comprise 83% of the student body. It is federally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution. UMEB faculty mentors are also diverse. Recruitment will take place throughout the year, through mechanisms already in place at the Center for Environmental Analysis. A prior UMEB award was successful at recruiting and retaining minority undergraduates, and in recruitment of students into graduate programs at CSULA and at major research universities.