I3 Building Bridges, Creating Community and Wise Mentoring: Building Institutional Capacity to Enhance Diversity in STEM Disciplines

本文提出的项目整合了密歇根大学现有的活动，以三种方式增加未被充分代表的少数民族学生在STEM领域的参与：(1)通过硕士课程吸引一批新的未被充分代表的少数民族学生接受生物学、数学和物理学的博士教育。S学位课程；(2)在大学所有学生和教职员工中加强和加强未被充分代表的少数族裔科学家和工程师之间的代际社区；(3)加强所有教职员工为来自不同教育和文化背景的学生提供有效指导的能力。STEM学科的多样性才刚刚开始反映美国人口的多样性。我们认为，迫切需要鼓励更多才华横溢、代表性不足的少数族裔本科生攻读科学博士学位，方法是让他们参加研究型硕士项目，为博士项目提供充分的资金和强有力的准备。将学生直接从本科学习转移到博士教育的传统途径并没有实现增加STEM多样性的目标，甚至可能适得其反。一些证据表明，代表性不足的少数民族学生比其他学生更有可能攻读硕士学位。在攻读博士学位之前。我们提议的硕士课程特别旨在吸引领域（生态学和进化生物学，数学和物理学）的学生，而其他多样化博士课程的努力相对不成功。主吗?S的课程经过精心设计，结合了科学的严谨性和积极的学习创新。然而，它们本身不太可能成功；我们的计划要求主要机构伙伴作出积极贡献。我们将通过一个强大的跨代社区招募和支持学生，该社区由大学各级未被充分代表的少数民族教师和学生组成。为了让硕士生有一个跨代的社区，我们将利用目前针对本科生或博士生的许多现有项目。硕士生还将在项目内部和跨项目创建自己的社区方面得到支持。我们将培养师资力量，提供专注、称职和有意的指导。强大而有效的教师指导将鼓励这些学生攻读博士学位，同时将增加校园的能力，为各个层次的少数民族学生提供优秀的指导。这个项目将整合美国国家科学基金会和澳大资助的努力，以招收和支持澳大各级科学教育的学生。智力优势：我们的建议基于可靠的社会科学证据，这些证据表明支持结构可以预测来自代表性不足群体的学生的学业成功。此外，它通过研究小组和教师指导团队中学术代际的深厚联系，为学生和教师导师创造了卓越研究与成功教育成果之间的紧密联系。它利用现有的联邦政府资助和大学支持的资源（所有这些资源都经过仔细评估）来增强代表性不足的少数民族学生的无缝过渡，并在学术科学事业上取得最终成功。更广泛的影响：通过增加代表性不足的少数民族在特定STEM领域的参与，我们寻求通过吸引新生进入博士教育，并通过为各级大学教育的URM学生提供代际社区和明智的指导，产生更广泛的影响。如果成功，我们将为URM学生提供一种新的研究生教育模式，这种模式可以在STEM学科之间共享，并传播到其他研究型大学。我们成功的学生，当他们完成硕士？获得S学位和博士学位的科学家将成为他们自己的导师，并将在教育系统中产生“积极反馈”，推动科学劳动力向被未被充分代表的少数群体的公平代表权迈进。1

The project proposed here integrates existing University of Michigan activities to increase participation of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields in three ways: (1) by attracting a new group of underrepresented minority students to doctoral education in biology, math and physics via master?s degree programs; (2) by enhancing and strengthening the intergenerational community among underrepresented minority scientists and engineers at all student and faculty levels of the University: (3) by strengthening the capacity of all faculty members to provide effective mentoring to students who come from educational and cultural backgrounds different from their own. Diversity in the STEM disciplines has only begun to reflect the diversity of the U.S. population. We believe it is urgent to encourage more of the nation's talented underrepresented minority undergraduates to pursue scientific doctorates by engaging them in research master's programs that will provide full funding and strong preparation for doctoral programs. The traditional path of moving students directly from undergraduate study to doctoral education has not accomplished the goal of increasing diversity in STEM, and may even be counterproductive. Some evidence suggests that underrepresented minority students are more likely than other students to pursue master?s degrees before committing to doctoral education. Our proposed master's programs aim particularly at attracting students in fields (ecology and evolutionary biology, mathematics and physics) where other efforts to diversify doctoral programs have been relatively unsuccessful. The master?s programs are thoughtfully designed to incorporate scientific rigor and active learning innovations. However, by themselves they are unlikely to be successful; our plans call for active contributions of key institutional partners. We will recruit and support students via a strong intergenerational community of underrepresented minority faculty and students at all levels in the University. To surround master's students with an intergenerational community we will take advantage of many existing programs currently aimed at either undergraduate or doctoral students. The master's students will also be supported in creating their own community within and across programs. We will develop the faculty to offer focused, competent and intentional mentoring. Strong and effective faculty mentoring will encourage these students to pursue doctoral education, and simultaneously will increase the campus capacity for excellent mentoring of underrepresented minority students at all levels. This program, then, will integrate our NSF-funded and UM-funded efforts to recruit and support URM students at all levels of science education. Intellectual Merit: Our proposal is based on solid social science evidence about the support structures that predict the academic success of students from underrepresented groups. Moreover, it creates strong links between research excellence and successful educational outcomes for both students and faculty mentors, through deep ties across academic generations in research groups and faculty mentoring teams. It leverages existing federally-funded and university-supported resources (all of which have been carefully evaluated) to enhance underrepresented minority students' seamless transitions and ultimate success in academic science careers. Broader Impact: By increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in selected STEM fields, we seek to have a broader impact by attracting new students into doctoral education, and by providing URM students at all levels of university education with intergenerational community and wise mentoring. If successful, we will provide a new model of graduate education for URM students that can be shared across the STEM disciplines and disseminated to other research universities. Our successful students, as they complete master?s degrees and doctorates, will become mentors in their own right, and will generate "positive feedback" in the education system, moving the scientific workforce towards equitable representation by underrepresented minority groups.   1