Collaborative Research: AGEP - T: PROMISE AGEP Maryland Transformation

马里兰大学巴尔的摩县分校(UMBC)是Promise AGEP的牵头机构，这是马里兰州大学系统范围内的一项努力，旨在促进代表不足的STEM研究生和博士后的专业发展和职业道路。UMBC领导着这个联盟，该联盟由马里兰大学系统的所有14所学院、大学和地区教育中心、4所社区学院和波多黎各的前NSF卓越拉美裔服务机构模范机构组成。Promise一直是提高少数族裔入学率、保留率和毕业率的关键催化剂。该计划还将有助于为研究生和博士后提供关于留住和专业发展的高等教育文献。马里兰州机构(包括硕士在职机构、HBCU、社区学院和HSI)的轮流博士后奖学金和教授培训计划是响应AGEP号召的创新之一，目的是支持国家目标，即增加进入学术STEM职业生涯的代表不足的少数族裔的数量。Promise AGEP：马里兰转型将专注于四组联盟活动：1)研究生招生、保留和成功：通过为学生准备和进入研究生院培养新学生，参加促进保留的研讨会，并发展促进坚持的社区；2)博士完成和职业准备：开展活动，将重点放在完成学位和过渡到职业生涯上；3)博士后学者计划：促进整个大学系统指导未被充分代表的少数族裔博士后的协调政策和计划；以及4)加强教师对研究生和博士后教育中多样性问题的理解的计划：在教师之间开展对话，为代表不足的少数族裔的招聘、留住、指导和职业过渡制定有前途的做法。新项目将使马里兰大学系统参与全系统对STEM研究生教育多样性的关注，并将共享资源和设施，为参与者提供专业发展，否则这些参与者在没有联盟的情况下可能是有限的或根本不存在于一些机构。这一全州范围的联盟消除了“竖井效应”或独立的STEM多样性努力，并将通过州政府扩大和连接学者社区的合作作为一项核心使命来促进。全州范围的联盟允许这些机构为博士后研究、博士后安置和教师任命提供机构之间的管道和途径。该项目包括一个探索三个研究问题的研究部分：微肯定/微攻击感、归属感、职业关系网和指导经历是否会影响研究生的结果，如时间到学位、坚持不懈、工作安置和职业晋升中的代理感？这些结果和经历因学生人口统计、学科或机构类型而有何不同？参加Promise AGEP在这些经验和成果中发挥了什么作用？这项拟议的研究的目标首先是确定第二组的学生是否更有可能在职业发展中体验到代理感，是否更有可能坚持他们的学位课程和STEM，获得学位的时间更短，以及毕业后是否更有可能找到学术职位。其次，这项研究将探索Promise计划如何促进获得这些体验，促进STEM中代表不足的少数族裔学生的教育成果。

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) is the lead institution for PROMISE AGEP, a university system-wide effort for the state of Maryland to facilitate underrepresented STEM graduate student and postdoctoral professional development and pathways to careers. UMBC leads the alliance that consists of all 14 colleges, universities, and regional education centers in the University System of Maryland, four community colleges, and a former NSF Model Institution of Excellence Hispanic Serving Institution in Puerto Rico. PROMISE has been a critical catalyst for increasing enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of underrepresented minorities. The program also will contribute to the higher education literature on retention and professional development for graduate students and postdocs. The Rotating Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Professors-in-Training program for Maryland's institutions (including Master's serving institutions, HBCUs, community colleges, and an HSI) are among the innovations that respond to AGEP's call to support the national goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities who will enter academic STEM careers. PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation will focus on four sets of alliance activities: 1) Graduate student recruitment, retention, and success: to cultivate new students by creating a pipeline (pathway) for students to be prepared for and admitted to graduate school, participate in workshops that promote retention, and develop community to facilitate persistence; 2) Ph.D. completion and career preparation: to develop activities that will focus on both degree completion and transition to careers;3) Programs for postdoctoral scholars: to facilitate coordinated policies and programs for mentoring underrepresented minority postdocs across the university system; and 4) Programs to enhance faculty understanding of diversity issues in graduate and postdoctoral education: to open dialog among the faculty to develop promising practices for underrepresented minority recruitment, retention, mentoring, and transitions to careers. The new project will engage the University System of Maryland in a system-wide focus on diversity in STEM graduate education, and will share resources and facilities to provide professional development for participants that might otherwise be limited or non-existent at some of the institutions without the alliance. This state-wide alliance eliminates the "silo-effect" or independent STEM diversity efforts, and it promotes as a core mission the collaboration to expand and connect a community of scholars through the state. The state-wide alliance allows the institutions to provide pipelines and pathways between institutions for doctoral study, postdoctoral placements, and faculty appointments. The project includes a research component to explore three research questions: Does experience of micro-affirmations/micro-aggressions, a sense of belonging, professional networks, and mentoring experiences influence graduate student outcomes such as time to degree, persistence, job placement, and a sense of agency in career advancement? How do these outcomes and experiences differ by student demographics, discipline, or institutional type? What role does participation in the PROMISE AGEP play in these experiences and outcomes? The goals of the proposed research are first to determine whether students in the second group are more likely to experience a sense of agency in career advancement, persist in their degree programs and STEM, have shorter time to degree, and find academic appointments post-graduation. Second, the research will explore how the PROMISE program facilitates access to these experiences, promoting educational outcomes for underrepresented minority students in STEM.