Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation

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The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program is an alliance-based program. The overall goal of the program is to assist universities and colleges in diversifying the nation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce by increasing the number of STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees awarded to populations historically underrepresented in these disciplines.The goal of the Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (TLSAMP) is to significantly increase the quality and quantity of baccalaureate degrees awarded to underrepresented minority students who major in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) discipline. TLSAMP is a strategic collaboration of 10 institutions of higher education which began with six public and private institutions - LeMoyne Owen College, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Vanderbilt University. TLSAMP was expanded by adding four additional colleges and universities, that is, Fisk University, Tennessee Technological University, Nashville State Community College, and Southwest Tennessee Community College. TLSAMP partners share a collective interest in recruiting, cultivating, and developing the next generation of scientists, leaders, and a highly skilled workforce to ensure not only Tennessee's economic prosperity but also America's global preeminence. Over the next five years, the Alliance will increase its efforts to recruit minority STEM students, implement research-based strategies to retain students to graduation, and increase the number of minority STEM graduates that transition to graduate school. Through a mixed-method exploratory sequential design, the TLSAMP Alliance proposes to conduct a research study that examines the factors involved in mentoring students from underrepresented groups (URG) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and who are at the critical retention to graduation academic stage. This research study will provide insights and understanding of mentoring as a strategy that fundamentally addresses the persistent need for increased participation and support of URG in STEM education and employment in STEM careers. Student mentees, their mentors, Alliance PIs, and coordinators will participate as respondents in the proposed study.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.