GP-IMPACT: Professional Development Pathways to Diversifying the Geosciences Workforce

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Professional Development Pathways to Diversifying the Geosciences Workforce is a partnership between the University of Arkansas and the Geological Society of America (GSA) with assistance from UNAVCO and the University of Texas-Austin to broaden participation and increase inclusion in the global geosciences workforce. A primary objective is aiding progress of underrepresented minority students (URMs) toward employment in the national geosciences workforce, an area of critical national need. The project proposes to design professional development workshops intended to increase the quantity and quality of applications from URMs for internships or other professional opportunities (e.g. GeoCorps; Geoscientist-In-the-Parks, GIP; Research Experiences in Solid Earth Science for Students, RESESS, etc.). The objective is to aid URMs who are advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students to improve written and oral communication skills as expressed in written applications and/or interviews for internships/fellowships.The project is an extension of programs to broaden participation and increase inclusion of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in geosciences developed at the Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas and the Geological Society of America (GSA) with assistance from UNAVCO. The proposed effort will target URMs in GSA's On to the Future (OTF) initiative and offer financial support to participants to attend professional development workshops focused on acquiring soft skills (written and oral communication skills related to internship/fellowship applications) at multiple GSA conference venues (annual and geographic section meetings) annually. The primary goal of the proposed program is to provide URMs in the geosciences academic/career pipeline supplemental professional training to enhance the quantity and quality of internship/fellowship applications such that greater numbers of URMs are selected for these educational and professional experiences, ultimately aiding their transition to the geosciences workforce through acquisition of both technical and non-technical skills coveted by employers. A critical aspect of this experiment will be to track progress of URM participants and their success rate being selected for internships/fellowships as a consequence of participation in the proposed workshops. Project personnel are uniquely positioned to monitor this population over the next three years to determine how well they perform at this task and how they progress through the pathways to the national geoscience workforce. It is anticipated the project will support at least 40 participants annually (minimum of 120 over 3 years). Participants will be supported for 2nd and 3rd year experiences in an effort to greatly increase their retention and persistence in GSA and, by extension, the geosciences profession. Recurrent counseling, mentoring, education, training, and engagement with this cohort will help them establish a sense of community and belonging within the geosciences. This strategy is a well-documented best practice for promoting URM progress and ultimate success in STEM disciplines.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.