Louis Stokes B2B Alliance: Puget Sound Alliance

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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 Puget Sound Bridge to the Baccalaureate Alliance (PS-B2B) focuses on undergraduate research experiences to develop participants’ STEM identity to prepare underrepresented minority (URM) community college students for successful transfer to and completion of STEM baccalaureate degrees. PS-B2B will use evidence-based strategies focused on expanding undergraduate research experiences throughout the Alliance and implementation of evidence based best practices to develop participants’ STEM identity in support of student success. Activities will include further developing an Alliance-wide recruitment plan, a diversity of meeting opportunities for LSAMP scholars to build community, increased and focused opportunities for undergraduate research experiences including integration into STEM ‘gateway’ courses, mentoring training for faculty who will be guiding students in research activities, and guidance in the process for transferring to a four year program. The Alliance will form a Community of Practice to develop and disseminate successful approaches to undergraduate research experiences for community college students. Alliance activities will be supported by existing partners within the Alliance as well as external community partners, including the three University of Washington institutions and other regional institutions including those in the Pacific Northwest LSAMP. Transfer to four-year programs will be facilitated by statewide transfer articulation agreements that are already in place among the Washington institutions. Comprehensive project evaluation with the support and participation of both the leadership team and an external evaluator will form the basis for achieving project goals and disseminating successful strategies.PS-B2B is led by North Seattle College in partnership with Green River College and Pierce College, with regional four year institutions as informal partners and points of transfer. PS-B2B builds on existing statewide articulations between community colleges and four year institutions to bolster a region-wide effort in STEM degree attainment and career 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.