Strategic Synergies: STEM Pipeline

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This award will facilitate the organization of a workshop aimed at developing and implementing strategic initiatives to strengthen the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills of students, particularly underrepresented minorities. A collaborative group of faculty and staff from three organizations will engage in student development activities with the workshop as the starting event for the year-long project. The three organizations that would lead this project's activities are: (1) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions, (2) Campus Compact (a network of college and university presidents who focus on civic purposes of higher education), and (3) SENCER (Science Engagement for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities - an organization that committed to connecting science learning to critical civic questions). Hawaii, Montana, Iowa, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, and New Hampshire are the initial cohort of EPSCoR jurisdictions that will participate in this initiative. Intellectual Merit: Developing sustainable support systems for students requires a strategic approach that takes synergistic advantage of capital - financial, social, and intellectual. This workshop and associated year-long activities will pair representatives from EPSCoR jurisdictions and Campus Compact offices in collaboration with SENCER Fellows to develop college student leadership, service, and research models (social capital) and employ civically engaged pedagogies (intellectual capital) to create sustainable Grade 6 through college sophomore STEM success pathways for underrepresented minority students. Broader Impacts: The project will address and provide possible solutions to issues inhibiting the full engagement of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. The systemic approach, starting with Grade 6, is based upon proven success strategies implemented in HI. The adaption and adoption of analogous initiatives in seven other EPSCoR jurisdictions could have significant impacts by increasing the cadre of underrepresented minorities engaged in STEM nation-wide. Additional broader impacts of the proposed work lie in the use of outcomes from the assessment of the impact of the group's efforts and the dissemination of that information to other EPSCoR jurisdictions for their use in initiating similar partnerships.