GP-IMPACT: Establishing Partnerships to Recruit Geoscience Undergraduates from Urban Chicago

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Increasing demand for Earth materials, the many impacts of climate change, and the need to protect air, water, and soil quality are complex issues facing the future of humanity. Within the coming decade, our nation faces a shortage of approximately 135,000 skilled geoscientists who are able to address these problems. Active recruitment of students into the geosciences is essential to meet this projected shortfall. Urban centers, such as Chicago, provide large populations of high school and community college students who reflect the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the nation, and therefore provide a rich source for recruitment of a diverse geoscience workforce. However, these students do not typically consider geoscience as a career. They often lack educational opportunities in geoscience, and in their daily lives, urban students interact more with the built environment rather than the natural world. They do not view geoscience as a possible career path and their families are unfamiliar with the discipline. Compelling and innovative approaches are needed to attract urban students, and in particular underrepresented minorities, into the discipline. The aim of this project is to expose high school, community college, and college students from the Chicago region to the aspects of geoscience that shape their world and are essential to the economic viability and sustainability of their future. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of students who choose the field of geoscience as a major with the intent of continuing in geoscience as a career. Research results from this project will contribute to the evidence base for differing instructional models and transitional pathways that target high school and community college students. Longitudinal evaluation of the project will investigate the overall ability to attract and retain those students as geoscience majors at 4-year institutions. Broader project goals are to achieve new institutional awareness of the importance and value of geoscience in the education and training of STEM-oriented students and to establish model approaches for engaging students and accelerating graduation rates that can be extended to more Chicago area institutions and other urban-serving institutions in the future.The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a public research and underrepresented minority-serving university in downtown Chicago that draws its enrollment largely from the urban area. UIC is partnering with five regional high schools and two local community colleges, where underrepresented minority students constitute 33 to 99% of the enrollment. Only two of three high school partners in the Chicago Public Schools district (Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, Lincoln Park High School, and North-Grand High School) offer environmental science, and none offers geoscience classes. Maine East and Maine South high schools in suburban Park Ridge, Moraine Valley Community College, and Prairie State College offer introductory geology courses, all of which could launch students into the 4-year major at UIC. Project objectives are to 1) develop and implement dual enrollment courses and summer workshops at UIC that introduce students to urban-relevant geoscience; 2) coordinate with all partner institutions to establish clear transfer agreements and academic advising to reduce the time and cost of completing a 4-year degree in the Earth and Environmental Sciences major at UIC; 3) provide more interactions between students and faculty, through mentoring, recruitment visits, departmental open house events, and geoscience informational materials; and 4) assemble additional partners including families and local employers to help support students through their degree. Students participating in the program are expected to gain improved knowledge and attitude towards the geosciences, be prepared to succeed academically at UIC, and be supported by a network of peers, faculty, family, and employers. Faculty are becoming more adept at advising students in urban geoscience career options, and in implementing practices that help underrepresented groups overcome barriers to success.