UMEB: Student Travel Awards to the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting

美国国家科学基金会的资金将允许美国生态学会（ESA）增加少数族裔本科生参加其年度科学会议。作为其生态教育、发展和可持续发展战略（SEEDS）项目的一部分，欧空局定期邀请20名来自代表性不足群体的学生参加会议；NSF UMEB奖励将允许13名额外的学生参加。在ESA的7800多名成员中，只有不到8%的人认为自己是一个未被充分代表的少数群体的成员。为了增加攻读生态学专业的少数民族学生的数量，SEEDS项目试图解决招生的主要障碍，其中之一是学生缺乏将生态学作为一门可行的学习课程和就业机会的意识。超过3500名生态学家和环境专业人士参加了欧空局会议，与同行分享研究成果。这为学生参与科学研究最重要的方面之一——与科学界交流智力价值和新知识——提供了一个完美的场所。鼓励学生展示他们的研究成果，并为学生参与者计划了特别的活动和活动，包括科学实地考察和研讨会，欢迎和介绍会议，关于环境正义的圆桌讨论，传统生态知识，以及职业研讨会。这项活动的广泛影响包括：1)增加了代表性不足的本科生（非洲裔美国人、拉丁裔美国人、美洲印第安人）在科学会议上的参与；2)加强了传统ESA成员与代表性不足群体之间的网络和伙伴关系；3)建立了导师/学生关系。会议旅行计划的一个关键方面是建立学生与导师的关系。学生与同行和科学导师的匹配将有助于发展社区（学生和教师）内的联系和基础设施，这将培养未来的领导力。由于生态学的许多方面，如环境正义问题和传统生态知识，与科学生态研究一起得到强调，因此这次会议是一个完美的场所，可以促进代表性不足的群体的代表看到环境科学中的广泛可能性。本项目由国家自然科学基金环境生物学本科生指导项目资助。

NSF funding will allow the Ecological Society of America (ESA) to increase the participation of underrepresented minority undergraduates its annual scientific meeting. As part of its Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) program, ESA routinely brings 20 students from underrepresented groups to its meeting; the NSF UMEB award will allow 13 additional students to attend. Of the greater than 7800 members of the ESA, less than 8% have identified themselves as a member of an under-represented minority group. In order to increase the numbers of minorities pursuing ecology, the SEEDS program seeks to address key barriers to recruitment, one of which is a lack of student awareness of ecology as a viable course of study and career opportunity. Over 3500 ecologists and environmental professionals attend the ESA meeting sharing research results with their peers. This provides the perfect venue to engage students in one of the most important facets of doing science - communicating intellectual merit and new knowledge with the scientific community. Students are encouraged to present their research results and special events and activities are planned for student participants, including scientific field trips and workshops, welcome and orientation sessions, roundtable discussions on environmental justice, traditional ecological knowledge, and a career workshop.The broader impacts of this activity include: 1) the increase in participation of underrepresented (African American, Latino, American Indian) undergraduate students at a scientific meeting, 2) the enhancement of networks and partnerships between traditional ESA members and underrepresented groups and 3) the establishment of mentor/student relationships. A key aspect of the travel to meetings program is the establishment of student-mentor relationships. The matching of students with both peer and scientific mentors will assist in developing links and infrastructure within the communities (student and faculty) that will cultivate future leadership. The meeting is a perfect venue to facilitate representatives of underrepresented groups to view the broad possibilities within the environmental sciences since many aspects of ecology, such as environmental justice issues and traditional ecological knowledge, are highlighted along with scientific ecological research.This activity is funded by the National Science Foundation Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) Program.