Workshopping and relationship-building to promote pathways in STEM higher education: UCLA and NTU

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Higher education transformation leads to opportunities to influence culture at multiple scales. However, higher education STEM culture and the low levels of diversity in the geosciences and related STEM fields pose major barriers that adversely impact scientific innovation, workforce development, and social and economic justice. The STEM cultures at both UCLA and NTU both are poised to transition to become more inclusive because of a group of faculty that have developed relationships through an initial visit. This funding will support the exchange of students and faculty to provide opportunities to learn about environmental challenges and scientific questions being addressed in ongoing research.As part of a new initiative at the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science, faculty and students are developing relationships between UCLA and minority-serving institutions to promote pathways in STEM higher education. One of the major objectives is to increase the recruitment and retention of indigenous students within the environmental sciences. This fits into the Center's long-term goal of changing the culture of STEM higher education to empower a diverse national and global community to address environmental and technological challenges, while moving towards a more just and inclusive world. To help achieve the objective, this proposal supports meetings and relationship-building between students and faculty at Navajo Technical University (NTU) and UCLA. Outcomes will include strengthened pathways in STEM higher education for indigenous students, higher rates of recruitment and retention in the geosciences and related STEM fields, and improved cultural awareness.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.