BPC-AE: Collaborative Research: Strengthening and Expanding the Empowering Leadership Alliance

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Rice University leads a collaborative proposal to extend the impact of the Empowering Leadership: Computing Scholars of Tomorrow Alliance (ELA) through partnerships with new institutions and regional collaboratives that will adopt and expand ELA's successful models of engagement. The goal of ELA is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who major in computing at the nation's research universities. Additionally, ELA supports these students in securing positions in computing following graduation. The premise of the ELA is that minority students at research universities face challenges that can be mitigated by a supportive community that provides academic, social, and personal support. National in scope, the ELA is developing a network of computing faculty and leaders dedicated to providing this support. In addition to Rice University, ELA originally included Boston University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas, Austin. With this proposal, the ELA will add the University of Georgia, Clemson University, Tufts University, and Stony Brook University as new lead institutions, along with several new partners including MentorNet, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and the New England Computer Science Chairs (NECSC). The ELA uses three intersecting models of engagement, including the National, Regional and Local Models. The National Model seeks out and supports individuals across the country, building a virtual (and sometimes in-person) network; the Regional Model builds a support network among multiple universities within a region; and the Local Model builds a local support community within a single university. These three models serve to connect ELA students with each other and with tailored opportunities including internships, mentoring, conference participation, and summer research programs. The proposed extension will strengthen the three models at their current sites and test their scalability and transfer to the new lead institutions. It will also add programs developed under BPC demonstration projects to the suite of ELA offerings and test their scalability.