GP:IMPACT: Collaborative Research: TSU-Vanderbilt Partnership - A Pathway to Broaden Participation of Underrepresented Groups in Graduate School and the Geoscience Workforce

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Many pressing social, economic and environmental issues are informed by the geosciences including geohazards, natural resource management and climate change. These issues have potential impacts on all populations, however many minority groups continue to be proportionally underrepresented in geoscience related professions in academia, government and the private sector. In order to help close this persistent diversity gap within the geosciences, this project seeks to build a partnership between Tennessee State University (TSU), Vanderbilt University (VU), several federal, state and municipal government agencies, and the private sector with the goal of strengthening the pathway for minority students entering geoscience careers and graduate programs. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), like TSU, have a strong track record in recruiting and retaining minority students in STEM programs. However, only two of the 82 HBCUs have undergraduate geoscience programs. Thus, HBCUs represent a significant, underutilized opportunity to recruit diverse students into the geosciences. TSU has recently developed an Environmental Sciences concentration that does not currently include geoscience. VU is a research institution with a strong geoscience department with an institutional commitment to increasing diversity in all fields. The TSU-VU Partnership leverages TSU's strong record of preparing minority students for STEM careers and VU's vibrant geoscience research environment to draw students from underrepresented groups and prepare them for the geoscience workforce. To recruit, train and retain minority geoscience students, the partnership focuses on classroom and experiential learning to build the intellectual foundations and professional connections needed for successful geoscience careers. Upon completion of the program, students will be eligible and competitive for internships with program partners including Tennessee State Parks, the USGS, and several local businesses. Many of these internships involve direct interaction with the public, allowing the students to serve as role models of minority geoscientists. Thus, this program will work to increase the diversity of the geoscience workforce, change public perceptions of geoscientists and demonstrate the value of geoscience careers in the community.The proposed TSU-VU Partnership has high potential to be transformative in the lives of the individual students involved, the relationship between two neighboring institutions, and the perception of geoscientists and geoscience careers in Tennessee and beyond. This 2-year program targets TSU Environmental Science students in their junior and senior years. Key program components during the first year include an introductory geology course taught by VU faculty at TSU, an intensive two-week summer field course investigating the geology of Tennessee state parks and an 8-week paid research internship in a VU or TSU lab. Year two supports advanced skill development through upper level coursework at VU and a Career Seminar to help the students determine the geoscience career pathways that best fit their goals. The program will be evaluated via a mixed methods approach to measure program and participant success. Through these evaluations, the program effectiveness will be documented and refined. A main product of this effort will be the construction and dissemination of a translatable model, or toolkit, designed to help institutions create and sustain partnerships at the undergraduate level. This toolkit will be particularly useful for other HBCUs wishing to partner with local or regional institutions to promote geoscience education. In this way, this partnership can be the start of a larger movement that promotes cross-institutional and agency collaboration to provide crucial support for students at key transitional moments in their careers and therefore to enhance diversity in the career and academic pipeline.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.