UMEB: Fostering Student Confidence and Capability in Environmental Science

这个UMEB项目的目标是：(1)通过令人兴奋的研究经历招募更多未被充分代表的本科生进入环境生物学，(2)鼓励学生的智力和个人发展，以便他们在环境科学（ES）社区取得成功，(3)增加未被充分代表的学生进入环境生物学研究生课程的人数。该项目针对的是大二和大三的学生，在他们学习了一些基本的原理和技能之后，他们的职业抱负还没有固定下来。有效指导学生进行有意义的研究是实现项目目标的关键。导师经过培训，在研究和智力问题、职业建议、课程咨询和个人成长问题上提供指导。UMEB学生全年参加研究团队，该团队在单一科学主题下组织：社会环境问题的多学科调查。学生们在一系列项目上工作，从物种形成机制到空间明确的人口模型。通过研讨会和非正式聚会，学生们通过比较他们在不同系统中的工作，建立了一种社区意识和目标感。CSULA是一个世界性的少数民族服务机构，少数民族成员占学生总数的83%。它被联邦政府指定为西班牙裔服务机构。UMEB的教师导师也很多样化。通过环境分析中心现有的机制，全年都将进行征聘。之前的UMEB奖成功地招募和留住了少数民族本科生，并在CSULA和主要研究型大学招募了研究生课程的学生。

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.