Louis Stokes B2B Alliance: North Carolina STEM Alliance

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The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM. The North Carolina STEM Alliance (NCSA), led by Central Piedmont Community College, with partners Forsyth Technical Community College and Guilford Technical Community College will advance and innovate current practices initiated under the inaugural LSAMP Bridge to the Baccalaureate (B2B) project. The goal of the alliance, to increase the number of traditionally underrepresented minority (URM) students who transfer from the two-year institutions into STEM baccalaureate degree programs, will be achieved by increasing access and opportunities for these students through targeted engagement, career exploration, and structured academic pathways, and by improving retention and student success through research-based interventions, that include proactive advising, coaching and tutoring for gateway STEM courses, curriculum alignment, faculty mentoring, academic workshops, summer bridge programs, and, research and workforce experiences. STEM focused academics and programs are vital to the workforce need and economic competitiveness inNorth Carolina and maintaining the economic health of the nation. Data analysis and evaluation will contribute to continuously enhancing the project activities and provide opportunities for researchingand evaluating the success of the program. The project leadership team will disseminate information about the results of the project, sharing best practices and lessons learned through participation in national and conferences, higher education networks, website, and other social media outlets. Finally, the regional nature of the partnership will allow for continued collaboration and expansion of the URM STEM focused model.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.