Increasing and Enhancing Research Experiences for Native American and Pacific Islanders Undergraduates

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This proposal, "Increasing and Enhancing Research experiences for Native American and Pacific Islanders Undergraduates," from the Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS) requesting renewed support through August of 2015, seeks to increase students accepted in the OTS program from 17 to 20 participants per year. Participants are selected from the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) institutions, such as tribal colleges, community colleges and non-research (R1) institutions that serve Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. Secondly, OTS will organize a follow-up workshop in the fall to complement the successful orientation workshop it holds in the spring for research- and on-campus mentors and LSAMP Coordinators to continue improving the summer program. Also, OTS intends to integrate more comprehensively the students' research experiences with course work and research activities in their home institutions.Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts: The strength of the program lies in engaging Native American and Pacific Islander students in pure and applied biological research, while introducing them to the biodiversity, cultural diversity and community-based conservation issues of the tropics. Under the guidance of the program staff and faculty research mentors, the students complete high-quality research projects designed to sharpen their technical skills and enrich their professional development. In 2011, OTS's Impact Study revealed that most Native American and Pacific Islander students who participated in the program continued their undergraduate careers (moving from two-year schools and community colleges to four-year institutions). Notably, most of these alumni majored in STEM fields and many went on to graduate degree programs.