Training Successful Trajectories: Interventions to Increase Minority Student and Future Engineering and Other STEM Faculty Application Success Rates

在所有STEM领域，许多有色人种群体在博士级别的代表性仍然严重不足；工程学领域在国内群体中增加种族和族裔代表性尤其困难。许多有色人种的博士申请者，他们在教育和经验方面都很合格，但在研究生院的申请支持方面，特别是在培养获得主要奖学金、进入研究生院并在各自领域获得优质职位所必需的自我介绍技能方面，服务不足。虽然在资源充足的大学和学院中，代表人数不足的学生会被提供奖学金、准备讲习班和培养这种自我展示技能的专业建议，但在没有人力和财力提供这种专业化培训的高等教育机构中，这些服务往往是缺乏的。如果没有这种支持，许多人数不足的博士生就不太可能成功获得奖学金，并获得完成研究生学业的录取资格。这个助学金项目致力于解决这个问题，通过提供代表不足的本科生、研究生和博士后学者，他们都将是未来的教师，在训练营期间(以及在资源充足的大学和学院)提供的那种自我展示培训，并使用可测量的结果来测试四种不同类型干预的有效性。该项目通过研究和比较四种不同的干预措施，具有扩大工程学和其他STEM领域参与的巨大潜力，研究结果将为最有效地培训至关重要的专业发展技能提供实践见解。在两年的时间里，90名代表性不足的学生以及未来的教师(例如博士后)和现有的教师将接受一流的培训。通过评估参与者的知识、申请数量和申请结果，调查人员将评估内容交付、咨询效果以及培训方法和材料的有效性。参加该计划后，90名学员(如LSAMP学生、博士后和教师)将接受培训；该培训将对他们在整个职业生涯中的职业轨迹产生积极影响。除了培训这些未来的领导者，该项目最重要的结果将是汇编、分析和向广大受众传播研究结果，以便全国各地的未来项目将受益于研究哪些类型的培训内容和交付方法最成功地支持URM STEM学生(以及现有和未来的教师)申请研究生院、奖学金和助学金。

Many communities of color remain significantly underrepresented at the doctoral level in all STEM fields; the engineering fields are particularly difficult to increase racial and ethnic representation among domestic groups. Many doctoral applicants of color, who are otherwise well-qualified in education and experience, are underserved in the area of graduate school application support, specifically in the development of self-presentation skills necessary to win a major fellowship, gain admission to graduate school, and land a quality position in their field. While underrepresented students at well-resourced universities and colleges are offered recruitment for fellowships, preparation workshops, and professional advising to develop such self-presentation skills, these services are often lacking at institutions of higher learning that do not have the human and financial resources to offer such professionalization training. Without this support, many underrepresented doctoral students are less likely to be successful in securing a fellowship and are gaining admission to complete graduate school. This grant project focuses on remedying this issue by offering underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars, who will all be future faculty, the kind of self-presentation training offered during that Boot Camp (and at well-resourced universities and colleges), and using measurable outcomes to test the efficacy of four different types of intervention.This project has immense potential broadening participation in engineering and other STEM field by studying and comparing four different interventions for underrepresented students, and the findings from the research study will provide practical insights into the most effective training of vital professional development skills. Over two years, ninety underrepresented students, along with future faculty (e.g., postdocs) and current faculty, will receive first-rate training. By assessing participant knowledge, their application numbers, and the results of their applications, the investigators will evaluate content delivery, consultation efficacy, and the effectiveness of training methods and materials. After participating in this program, the 90 trainees (e.g., LSAMP students, postdocs, and faculty) will take their training with them; this training will positively influence their professional trajectories throughout their careers. Beyond training these future leaders, the most important result of the project will be the compilation, analysis, and dissemination of the research findings to a broad audience, so that future programs across the country will have the benefit of research into which types of training content and delivery methods most successfully support URM STEM students (and current and future faculty) with applications to graduate school, fellowships, and grants.