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

有一大批久负盛名的近期研究敲响了对全国STEM劳动力，特别是地球科学劳动力的警钟。这些研究突出了：1)STEM对国家福祉、安全和全球竞争力的重要性；2)STEM学科对公平、准入、增加入学人数和多样性的需求；以及3)STEM劳动力短缺的当前和预期增加。现有和未来的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。按照目前的速度，地球科学劳动力正在迅速枯竭，未来的短缺正接近危机状态。进入地球科学工作队伍的新地球科学人员根本不足以取代即将退休的地球科学雇员--因此，随着时间的推移，这一差距预计将扩大。该项目旨在通过为非地球科学少数民族STEM学生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生涯指导计划来帮助改善国家的地球科学困境，该计划从他们大四的关键时刻开始。该计划的总体目标是通过利用非传统和多样化的学生池，构建一条通往日益减少的地球科学劳动力的创新、可行和可持续的途径。该计划具有附加值，因为它不仅补充了地球科学劳动力，而且通过培养具有地球科学素养的公民，支持地球科学教育，促进多样性和包容性，并造福整个社会。该计划旨在实现以下两个主要目标：1)拓宽非地球科学少数民族STEM专业的地球科学劳动力途径；2)创建多部门地球科学劳动力发展基础设施。第一个目标的目标在EPA-E地球科学过渡劳动力计划的以下主题中描绘：接触：让本科生接触地球科学，准备：为本科生提供关键的地球科学劳动力技能和专业网络，学徒制：让本科生进入有意义的现实世界，通过地球科学应用程序进行服务和体验式学习，以及体验：最终进入/与地球科学实习-劳动力体验。第二个目标的目标与上述学徒制度部分有关：a)为地球科学工作人员创建一个学生-教师-行业指导模式；b)在参与组织中创建一个专业的工作人员发展结构；以及c)设计点对点指导支助结构。每年将招募12名学生参加上面提到的结构化地球科学劳动力模型计划-接触、准备、学徒和经验。这些学生不仅将获得群体建设活动的支持，还将参加两个地球科学实习项目，这些项目将使他们掌握地球科学知识和劳动力技能、服务学习经验、在联邦、地方或私人地球科学机构的暑期实习、地球科学从业人员的指导，以及与地球科学公司和地球科学专业协会建立联系的机会。通过这一倡议的期望是，许多原本不会追求地球科学职业生涯的少数族裔(URM)学生现在可以选择走一条地球科学走廊，这条走廊不仅可以带来丰厚的地球科学职业生涯，还可以帮助改善国家严重的地球科学劳动力困境。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.