Bridging the STEM Entrepreneurial Gap for Under-Represented Minority Women By Using the NSF I-Corps' Program Methodology

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The Julian C. Madison Building, LLC (JCMB) project includes the research, evaluation, and reporting of the STEM Entrepreneurial Excellence Program (STEEP) – a pilot initiative to enhance cultural and contextual relevancy for a proven STEM entrepreneurship support program using the NSF I-Corps™ framework as the model program methodology. In service to national interests promoting the progress of science, this project targets under-represented minority (URM) women interested in advancing their STEM education and experience for business ownership. By increasing diversity in STEM-related career options, this project provides broad societal benefits and advances in education for marginalized sectors of the US population.The STEEP Training Initiative goal is to broaden participation in the NSF I-Corps™ program for URM women interested in entrepreneurship. This project’s scope focuses on evaluating readiness activities that collectively utilize STEEP’s entrepreneurial planning and NSF program methodology for maximum efficacy. The project team tracks STEEP participants’ engagement with corporate partners to leverage mentoring opportunities. Utilizing pre-, interim, and post-training surveys and interviews, data is collected across the project timeline to analyze its intended results. The approach serves as a solid research model for long-term sustainability for STEM-focused entrepreneurship, as well as NSF I-Corps™ program participation for URM women.This project will create a broader-access community in this innovative research area by capturing critical data (e.g. obstacles – real or perceived) on URM women participants with entrepreneurial spirits; engaging the national and international community through academic, professional development and mentorship networks; and establishing new and/or improved interdisciplinary programs among the participating academic institutions. This project is scalable and transferable across the NSF Innovation Network (NIN) where Nodes, Hubs, Teams, and participating institutions of higher education (IHE) can implement the expected research findings to improve diversity and participation for URM women across STEM programs that encourage innovation and entrepreneurism.JCMB maintains an internal repository of survey data and interviews that is processed, then summarized to protect confidentiality (biographical information from the respondents). Summarized project survey and individual interview results are assigned pseudonyms prior to any publication (i.e. scientific or managerial journals). Once collected and analyzed, JCMB will present all data in aggregate form ensuring that the identity of respondents is maintained. Personally-identifiable data is access-controlled during the project and for three years after the study is complete; then destroyed. JCMB intends to distribute sanitized/summarized results to a broad audience concerned with the lack of diversity in STEM entrepreneurship.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.