GP-EXTRA: Stimulating Hispanic Participation in the Geosciences (SHIP-GEO)

GP-EXTRA：刺激西班牙裔参与地球科学 (SHIP-GEO)

• 批准号: 1600585
• 负责人: Chu-Lin Cheng
• 金额: $ 46.5万
• 依托单位: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600585&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GP; EXTRA; Stimulating; Hispanic; Participation

Geoscience is vital to understanding and solving crucial global threats such as shortages of water, energy and food, and mitigating natural hazards in the coming century. However, the geoscience workforce in the US is facing not only a serious shortage for the coming decade, but the field struggles to keep pace with the changing national demographics. Of all of the STEM fields, geoscience has the least ethnic diversity, with Hispanics accounting for only ~3%, suggesting a clear consequence of the historically low enrollment of Hispanic students in geoscience fields. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), with its rapidly growing Environmental and Earth Sciences (EES) program, is the nation's second-largest Hispanic-serving institution with ~29,000 students (~90% Hispanic). UTRGV's strategic location along the international border with Mexico, as well as its founding principles, make it an ideal hub to nurture geoscientists from South Texas and beyond.The goals of "GP-EXTRA: Stimulating Hispanic Participation in the Geosciences (SHIP-GEO)" at UTRGV are to contribute to reducing the US geoscience workforce shortage predicted for the coming decade and to increase Hispanic participation. SHIP-GEO aims to double, within five years (two years beyond NSF support), the annual number of graduates from the Environmental and Earth Sciences program. These goals are being achieved by hosting activities geared toward student recruitment and retention while building a mentoring network of students and alumni. The alumni mentors are helping to direct the students in their career and future success. The project has four objectives: (1) grow the existing EES program at UTRGV with the specific aim to recruit and retain students in geoscience; (2) increase community awareness of Earth systems; (3) guide community college and high school students into geoscience careers; and (4) expose undergraduate students to research as a path to graduate school. These objectives are being achieved through: pairing undergraduate majors with alumni who are working in the field of interest of the student; encouraging the transfer of community college students into the EES program at UTRGV through field trips, guest speakers, and an annual alumni career day; and expanding undergraduate research opportunities by engaging students in ongoing projects. The project also is awarding fifty scholarships to five cohorts of students over three years. SHIP-GEO contributes to the NSF's goal of increasing diversity in the geoscience pipeline by attracting, supporting and preparing Hispanic students for careers in geosciences in South Texas, and is expected to become one of the best-known programs in the nation for producing quality Hispanic geoscientists.

在下一个世纪，地球科学对于理解和解决水、能源和粮食短缺等重大全球威胁以及减轻自然灾害至关重要。然而，美国的地球科学劳动力不仅在未来十年面临严重短缺，而且该领域难以跟上不断变化的国家人口结构。在所有STEM领域中，地球科学的种族多样性最少，西班牙裔仅占3%，这表明历史上西班牙裔学生在地球科学领域的入学率很低。德克萨斯大学格兰德谷分校（UTRGV）拥有快速发展的环境与地球科学（EES）课程，是美国第二大西班牙裔服务机构，拥有约29,000名学生（约90%为西班牙裔）。UTRGV沿墨西哥国际边界的战略位置，以及其创始原则，使其成为培养来自南德克萨斯州及其他地区的地球科学家的理想中心。UTRGV的“GP-EXTRA：刺激西班牙人参与地球科学（SHIP-GEO）”的目标是为减少预计未来十年美国地球科学劳动力短缺做出贡献，并提高西班牙人的参与度。SHIP-GEO的目标是在五年内（在NSF支持之后的两年）将环境与地球科学项目的年度毕业生数量增加一倍。这些目标正在通过举办旨在招收和保留学生的活动，同时建立学生和校友的指导网络来实现。校友导师帮助指导学生的职业生涯和未来的成功。该项目有四个目标：(1)发展UTRGV现有的EES项目，具体目标是招收和留住地球科学专业的学生；(2)提高社区对地球系统的认识；(3)引导社区大学和高中学生进入地学领域；(4)让本科生从事研究工作，作为通往研究生院的途径。这些目标是通过以下方式实现的：将本科专业与在学生感兴趣的领域工作的校友配对；通过实地考察、客座演讲和年度校友职业日，鼓励社区大学生转入UTRGV的EES项目；通过让学生参与正在进行的项目，扩大本科生的研究机会。该项目还将在三年内向五组学生颁发50份奖学金。SHIP-GEO通过吸引、支持和培养西班牙裔学生在南德克萨斯州从事地球科学工作，为NSF增加地球科学管道多样性的目标做出了贡献，并有望成为培养高质量西班牙裔地球科学家的全国最知名的项目之一。