Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities Senior LSAMP Alliance

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation project combines the efforts of an alliance of30 colleges and universities, 7 professional organizations, 2 government laboratories, 4 educationalorganizations, 12 corporations, 147 academic and support programs, 500 resource individuals,approximately 85% of whom are scientists, engineers, and other faculty, and 15% administrators. The new project is a comprehensive, concerted, sequenced effort that uses NSF funding for historically underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate student activities, including the transition of college sophomores, juniors, and seniors toward graduate school and the development ofhigh technology products with application or dissemination both regionally and nationally. Through the NSF-funded Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and the LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) program the alliance will continue the seamless transition and student support from STEM undergraduate to STEM graduate studies through the successful multidisciplinary facultymentoring network to transition these students to doctoral completion and into faculty ranks, as well as other sectors in the Nation's STEM workforce.Based on the multiple prior successes in doubling the number of historically underepresented minorities in STEM majors and being on pace for a similar doubling goal for this population of students by 2016, the recruitment and retention activities will result in the alliance becoming a national model for strengthening and diversifying the Nation's STEM workforce to meet 21st century innovation needs.