GEOPAths-UP: Recruiting and Retaining Non-geoscience Minority STEM Majors for Geoscience Service Learning and for the Geoscience Workforce.

最近有大量成熟的研究对国家的STEM劳动力，特别是地球科学劳动力发出了警报。这些研究强调：1）STEM对国家福祉，安全和全球竞争力的重要性; 2）STEM学科的公平，准入，增加入学率和多样性的需求;以及3）STEM劳动力短缺的当前和预计增加。当前和未来STEM劳动力满足国家科学和技术需求的持续能力受到现有STEM专业人员数量急剧下降的威胁。以目前的速度，地球科学的劳动力正在迅速枯竭，其未来的短缺正在接近危机状态。根本没有足够的新的地球科学人员进入地球科学劳动力，以取代退休的地球科学雇员-因此，有一个差距，预计将扩大随着时间的推移。该项目旨在通过为非地球科学少数STEM学生在大四的关键时刻开始创建一个全年的地球科学劳动力准备，地球科学服务学习和地球科学职业指导计划来帮助改善国家的地球科学困境。该计划的总体目标是通过利用非传统和多样化的学生群体，为日益减少的地球科学劳动力构建一条创新，可行和可持续的途径。该项目的附加价值在于，它不仅培养了地球科学人才，而且还支持了地球科学教育，促进了多样性和包容性，并通过培养具有地球科学素养的公民而使整个社会受益。该项目旨在实现以下两个主要目标：1）拓宽非地球科学少数STEM专业的地球科学人才培养途径; 2）建立多部门地球科学劳动力发展基础设施。第一个目标的目标是在地球科学过渡劳动力计划的EPA-E主题中描述的：暴露：将本科毕业生暴露在地球科学中，准备：为本科毕业生提供关键的地球科学劳动力技能和专业网络，APPRENTICESHIP：通过地球科学应用，让本科毕业生参与有意义的现实世界，服务和体验式学习，以及经验：最终进入/与地球科学实习劳动力的经验。第二个目标的具体目标与上述学徒制部分有关：a）为地球科学工作人员建立一个学生-教师-行业指导模式; B）在参与组织中建立一个专业工作人员发展结构; c）设计同行指导支助结构。每年将招募12名学生参加上述结构化地球科学劳动力模型计划-暴露，准备，学徒和经验。学生不仅将与队列建设活动的支持，但他们也将参加两个地球科学实习计划，这将使他们具备地球科学知识和劳动力技能，服务学习经验，暑期实习在联邦，地方或私人地球科学设施，指导地球科学从业者，并与地球科学公司和地球科学专业协会的网络机会。通过这一举措的期望将是，许多代表性不足的少数民族（URM）的学生谁否则不会追求地球科学的职业生涯，现在可以选择遵循地球科学走廊，不仅可以导致利润丰厚的地球科学职业，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

There is a preponderance of well-established recent studies that sound the alarm concerning the nation’s STEM workforce in general and its geoscience workforce in particular. These studies highlight: 1) the importance of STEM to the nation’s well-being, security, and global competitiveness; 2) the need for equity, access, increased enrollment, and diversity in STEM disciplines; and 3) the current and projected increase in STEM workforce shortage. The sustained capacity of the current and future STEM workforce to meet the nation’s scientific and technological needs is threatened by a sharp decline in the number of available STEM professionals. At current rates, the geoscience workforce is rapidly depleting, and its future shortfall is approaching a state of crisis. There are simply not enough new geoscience personnel entering the geoscience workforce to replace retiring geoscience employees – hence there is a gap that is expected to widen over time. This project seeks to help in ameliorating the nation’s geoscience plight by creating a year-round geoscience workforce preparation, geoscience service learning, and geoscience career mentoring program for non-geoscience minority STEM students beginning at the critical juncture of their senior year. The overall goal of the program is to construct an innovative, viable, and sustainable pathway to the dwindling geoscience workforce by tapping into a non-traditional and diverse pool of students. The program has added values in that it not only replenishes the geoscience workforce, but it also supports geoscience education, promotes diversity and inclusion, and benefits society as a whole by producing geoscience literate citizens.The program is designed to achieve the following two primary goals: 1) to broaden the geoscience workforce pathway for non-geoscience minority STEM majors; and 2) to create a multi-sector geoscience workforce development infrastructure. The objectives of the first goal are delineated in the following EPA–E theme of the geoscience transitional workforce program: EXPOSURE: Expose undergraduate seniors to the geosciences, PREPARATION: Provide undergraduate seniors with critical geoscience workforce skills and professional networks, APPRENTICESHIP: Engage undergraduate seniors in meaningful real-world, service and experiential learning via geoscience applications, and EXPERIENCE: Culminate into/with a geoscience internship-workforce experience. The objectives of the second goal are associated with the Apprenticeship component above: a) Create a student-faculty-industry paradigm of mentoring for the geoscience workforce; b) Create a professional workforce development structure among participating organizations, and c) Design peer-to-peer mentoring support structures. Twelve students will be recruited each year to participate in the structured geoscience workforce model program mentioned above – Exposure, Preparation, Apprenticeship, and Experience. The students will not only be supported with cohort-building activities, but they will also participate in two geoscience internship programs that will equip them with geoscience knowledge and workforce skills, service learning experiences, summer internships at a federal, local, or private geoscience facility, mentoring by geoscience practitioners, and networking opportunities with geoscience companies and geoscience professional societies. The expectation through this initiative will be that many underrepresented minority (URM) students who would otherwise not pursue a geoscience career may now choose to follow a geoscience corridor that could not only lead to lucrative geoscience careers, but could also help to improve the nation’s grave geoscience workforce dilemma.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.