HSI Institutional Transformation Project: Center for Equitable Environmental Sciences

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 3 HSI Institutional Transformation Project (ITP): Center for Equitable Environmental Sciences (CEES), aims to improve retention of students from groups underrepresented in STEM majors. Both first-year and transfer students who share these identities disproportionately leave declared STEM majors without a meaningful internship experience. Maintaining students from diverse backgrounds in STEM majors is a key step to building the next generation of environmental leaders. By foregrounding the linkages between science and society, STEM faculty at UCSB and Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) will generate innovative approaches to STEM education and novel research questions about the societal implications of science and technology. Finally, CEES will disseminate STEM education best practices to HSI communities through publications and conference presentations. This project will use the theme of environmental justice to facilitate the formation of intersectional STEM identities through a new Center for Equitable Environmental Sciences housed within the UCSB Chicano Studies Institute to provide mentoring, learning communities, and placement in STEM internships. Culturally relevant mentoring coupled with learning communities will enhance student experiences by fostering a greater sense of belonging within STEM majors. In collaboration with the Career Services Center, it will develop a new Environment and Society career track and a professional development program for UCSB and SBCC faculty that develops both pedagogical skills and interdisciplinary research projects that facilitate undergraduate internship opportunities in partnership with non-profit and government agencies. CEES will provide internship experiences anchored in principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ). Building on cluster hiring in racial environmental justice, this project aims to serve 1000 students through CEES, mentor 300 students, develop 300 internships, and train 75 faculty across two HSI campuses in professional development activities. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.