Collaborative Research: Track 2 - Enhancing diversity in the Geosciences through the AfricaArray Educational Alliance

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). AfricaArray will create a preeminent and sustainable pipeline program for increasing the representation of African-American and Hispanic students within the geosciences. The centerpiece of the program is a broad and diverse educational alliance between North Carolina A&T State University, Penn State University, Fort Valley State University, University of Texas El Paso, and California State University Northridge. The program is helping to establish an Earth Systems Science Institute at North Carolina A&T State University, and will, by 2014, graduate up to 25 students per year with BS degrees in STEM fields. The students are being prepared to matriculate into geoscience graduate programs across the country, and be able to compete for normal forms of graduate support provided by most research institutions. The program goals are being achieved by coordinating, supporting, and expanding many activities/interventions within the Alliance partners that are proven to attract underrepresented minority students into the geosciences. The activities/interventions within the Alliance partners already helping to develop a pipeline of minority students include: 1) a summer workshop for high school teachers, 2) a summer field course in Africa to recruit and mentor undergraduate students, 3) scholarship funds to support undergraduate students, 4) opportunities for students to participate in research in Africa, 5) opportunities for students to participate in professional meetings, 6) a postdoc to teach introductory geophysics courses, 7) an articulation agreement, and 8) high school outreach programs. The pipeline program will expand the number of participants reached by these activities/interventions and add to them: 1) a full time coordinator/recruiter who will be the "face" of the program at North Carolina A&T State University, 2) high school Earth science exercises linked to AfricaArray research, 3) opportunities for high school students, high school counselors and college access advisers to participate in a summer workshop, 4) a monthly webinar and web forum, 5) an annual "all hands" meeting, and 6) promotional material about careers in the geosciences to be distributed widely to high school and undergraduate students.