Early Career Faculty Travel Grant Program

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This workshop project aims to create the Early Career Faculty Travel Grant Program for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The overall intent is to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities who successfully pursue engineering academic careers. Support will be provided to early career faculty, post-doctoral scholars, and senior level graduate students to participate in the Annual National Society of Black Engineers Convention. It is intended that participation in various workshops sponsored by NSBE will enhance the professional success of these individuals. Additionally, the creation of a pool of underrepresented minorities who form a collaborative and supportive community and provide mentoring to each other and to other doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.This activity enables education and mentoring of early career African American faculty and provides them with opportunities for professional development. They participate in the NSBE Annual Convention activities that will support their future success in research funding and other scholarly activities. These include the Technical Professional Conference and Graduate Student Mini-Conference, which conduct workshops on professional development, leadership development, and entrepreneurship, as well interactions with industry attendees. Through the engagement in the convention participants are developing supportive personal and professional relationships with other African American engineering faculty. A mixed methods evaluation plan that uses surveys and focus groups measures the level of success the program had in increasing self-esteem and the intent to persist within academia as well as identify how participants intend to utilize the information they have received to better themselves and aid the next generation of academic researchers.