STEM Pathways and Research Alliances: New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation

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The New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation (NM AMP), part of the nation-wide Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, is a mature Alliance of seven public universities and seven public 2-year colleges. Collaborators include industry partners; two National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC) projects; the NSF-funded New Mexico EPSCoR project; the New Mexico Math, Engineering, Science Achievement program (New Mexico MESA, Inc.); and the Arizona-based LSAMP, the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO). The NMAMP provides support services and funding opportunities for Under Represented Minority (URM) students pursuing careers in STEM fields in the state of New Mexico. In Phase VI of the program, which will be years 26 through 30 of the program, NM AMP will include a social science/educational research component will seek to better understand the roles and interactions of students and faculty mentors in the development of scientists and engineers, and to better inform the design, execution, and assessment of such programs. Over the lifetime of NM AMP, the number of STEM B.S. degrees awarded annually to URMs in New Mexico has increased from 253 in 1992-93 to 858 in 2015-16. During the same time period, the percentage of B.S. STEM degrees awarded to URM students increased from 24% to 48%.Phase VI on NM AMP will accomplish the following: 1) Sustain proven strategies and activities, 2) Implement enhancements to further improve students' educational experiences and prepare them for the STEM workforce and/or graduate studies; 3) Contribute to the development of institutional contexts that support URM student achievement through an innovative new faculty development workshop, and 4) Conduct social science research to further understand and disseminate findings on the challenges for URM students in STEM. The NM AMP Pathway supports URM students at partnering two- and four-year institutions and provides them with multiple opportunities to explore STEM programs and careers, engage in undergraduate research, and participate in additional programs and opportunities that support early career exploration, the development of STEM identity, and foster self-efficacy and the self-directed pursuit of academic and career goals. The Pathway rejects deficit-based thinking that assumes students lack either qualities or abilities for achievement and, instead, embraces a strengths-based approach that recognizes the unique contributions and interests of individual students and provides them with guidance and experiences that enable each student to achieve his or her full potential. Evidence-based activities along the Pathway include undergraduate research experiences (domestic and international), professional development events, and skills-building workshops. The alliance will also support changes in institutional climate to increase learning and retention of URM students in STEM. New activities and priorities include the following: 1) Implement a rigorous, mixed methods social science research project focused on better understanding the factors that shape students' scientific identity and STEM retention, including dissemination of outcomes in quick turnaround mini-studies and peer-review articles; 2) Enhance student support activities with the addition of entry level stipends that provide opportunities for students to explore research options early in their college careers, a Professional Development Webinar Series, and an E-Portfolio option; and 3) Pilot a new Context Diversity Faculty Development Workshop to promote effective change in learning environments to better support URM student achievement.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.