Louis Stokes STEM Pathways and Research Alliance: Wisconsin LSAMP (WiscAMP)

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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 program also supports research in broadening participation in STEM.The Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP) is a consortium of 13 public 4-year institutions, 4 private institutions (1 of which is a Hispanic Serving Institution), and one technical college. The STEM Pathways and Research Alliance will pursue the dual goals of 1) broadening participation in advanced STEM degree career pathways and 2) transforming WiscAMP institutions to support and sustain diversity across and throughout our alliance. Specifically, the alliance will increase the number of students completing their baccalaureate degrees in STEM by 75% by ensuring direct support for underrepresented ethnic/racial minority (URM) students to engage in STEM faculty-mentored research at all 18 alliance institutions and connect students with innovation and entrepreneurship experiences during the project period. A major research and evaluation component undertakes a series of studies to develop and test interventions to reduce gaps in retention and academic performance between URM and Non-URM STEM majors. The proposed research will establish what form of intervention matters (instructor focused, resilience focused, or peer-focused) with respect to URM student persistence and academic performance in STEM courses. Successful strategies will be widely disseminated throughout the alliance and nationally.The proposed WiscAMP program and evaluation activities are based on established theories of institutional change, social capital, social psychology, and adult learning. The proposed series of studies will provide new and compelling evidence about what type of intervention can have a significant impact on disparities between URM and non-URM students in STEM courses. The research design capitalizes on the size, diversity, and engagement of the alliance institutions. The interventions will be easily disseminated and adapted to other institutions. As a STEM Pathways and Research Alliance, WiscAMP will make important contributions to the STEM workforce and the science of broadening participation. The proposed programs will significantly increase the number of URM students graduating with baccalaureate degrees in STEM and prepared to engage in STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, pursue graduate training, and transform the national and state workforce. The proposed research will provide easy to implement, adapt, and disseminate strategies thus helping institutions to support student success in STEM and transform the cultures of STEM disciplines to be more inclusive of the diversity that drives innovation.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.