Louis Stokes STEM Pathways and Research Alliance: Puerto Rico-LSAMP - Expanding Opportunities for Underrepresented College Students (2020-2025)

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The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students successfully completing high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming STEM education through innovative recruitment and retention strategies and experiences in support of groups historically under-represented in STEM disciplines: African-Americans, Alaskan Natives, American Indians, Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders.The 2020-2024 Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP) STEM Pathways and Research Alliance (SPRA) project, under the leadership of the University of Puerto Rico, will build on the successes of previous support to attract, recruit and retain STEM students in undergraduate and graduate studies to degree completion. The alliance is comprised of: (1) the University of Puerto Rico System: two graduate campuses - Río Piedras and Mayaguez and six 4-year campuses - Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamon, Cayey, Humacao, and Ponce; (2) the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico; and (3) the Ana G. Méndez University System - the Universidad Metropolitana, Universidad del Este, and Universidad del Turabo. PR-LSAMP provides a model for a seamless pipeline to increase the number of underrepresented minority groups that complete a PhD in STEM fields. It documents and disseminates the effectiveness of the replicable undergraduate research mentoring strategy to increase the number of underrepresented students that continue on to graduate studies and contribute to the diversity of the nation's STEM workforce. Furthermore, it disseminates and applies concepts of Learning Science to improve learning and teaching in STEM disciplines in a transformative manner.A requirement of this project is the production and dissemination of broadening participation research. Thus, the project will conduct impact studies to answer the following questions: (1) Which components of the PR-LSAMP model are more effective at mediating changes in different institutional or regional contexts? and (2) To what extent does participating in the PR-LSAMP model changes student’s non-cognitive attributes (self-efficacy, outcome expectations and STEM interest)? Support for this project is provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), that aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.