Collaborative Research: EAGER: A cross-institution Veterans in Green STEM program

该项目旨在东洛杉矶学院(ELAC)和加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)之间开发一个跨机构的地球/环境科学多样性领导计划，以从退伍军人社区招募人才。退伍军人群体由男女组成，通过他们的服务，他们接触到了领导力驱动的背景，这种背景往往会发展出独特的技能、经验和心态。这使他们成为在地球/环境科学界创造多样性冠军的主要候选人。但与地球科学、环境科学和STEM社区中许多代表性不足的社区一样，退伍军人有独特的障碍，必须解决这些障碍，以促进他们作为多样性领导者的发展。在许多情况下，这些人年纪较大，已经离开学术环境多年，承担着额外的生活责任，在某些情况下，他们的独特情况增加了在大学环境中取得成功的额外障碍。这些额外的障碍，加上与地球/环境科学领域相关的严格的学术课程，以及一般的STEM领域，导致退伍军人在这些学科中的代表性不足。联邦政府甚至做出了回应，即于2020年2月11日通过了《支持退伍军人参加STEM职业法案--H.R.425/S153》[1]，该法案指示国家科学基金会扩大努力，增加退伍军人进入STEM的人数。通过制定一项计划，在从一群对地球/环境科学领域感兴趣的退伍军人中培养领导者的同时，从这些额外的障碍中招聘并同时解决这些障碍，个人投资促进机构将支持独特的多样性倡导者；发展当前教师领导对退伍军人社区的同理心，以更好地告知他们如何创造扩大努力以提高包容性；以及，更广泛地，对如何应用《支持退伍军人在STEM职业法案》的原则发展迫切需要的洞察。这一探索性研究努力将有助于开发和应用新方法，这些新方法应该有效地在从退伍军人社区招募的地球/环境科学领域中创造多样性捍卫者。这种方法将是跨机构的，加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)和东洛杉矶学院(ELAC)将参与其中。通过检查这两个截然不同的学术环境，PI将收到更广泛的反馈和数据，并有助于开发可扩展的精细化方法。该项目的实施将有6个具体目标：1)招募对地球/环境科学STEM领域感兴趣的退伍军人，并建立一个跨机构社区，以促进类似同行的兴趣；2)建立支持系统，3)将退伍军人跨机构安置到地球科学和环境实验室，以获得研究机会；4)通过成员参与各种领导活动和角色，发展多样化的领导力；5)培养对当前地球/环境科学界与退伍军人相关情况的同理心和理解；以及6)记录和分析关于保留、业绩、参与、这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to develop a cross-institutional geo/environmental science diversity leadership program, between East Los Angeles College (ELAC) and The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to recruits from the veteran community. The veteran community is comprised of men and women who, through their service, have been exposed to a leadership-driven background which often develops unique skills, experiences, and mindsets. This makes them prime candidates to create diversity champions in the geo/environmental science communities. But as with many underrepresented communities in the geoscience, environmental science, and the STEM community overall, veterans have unique barriers which must be addressed to facilitate their development as diversity leaders. In many instances, these individuals are older, have been displaced from the academic environment for multiple years, have additional life responsibilities, and in some cases have unique circumstances which add additional barriers to success in the university environment. These additional barriers coupled with the rigorous academic curriculum associated with geo/environmental science fields, and STEM fields in general, have led to veterans being underrepresented in said disciplines. There has even been a Federal response, namely the passing of the “Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act – H.R. 425/S153” [1], on Feb 11, 2020, which has directed the NSF to expand its efforts in increasing veteran inclusion in STEM. By developing a plan to recruit from and simultaneously address these additional barriers while developing leaders from a pool of veterans interested in the geo/environmental science fields, the PIs will support unique champions of diversity; develop current faculty leadership empathy towards the veteran community to better inform them how to create expansion efforts to enhance inclusion; and, more broadly, develop much needed insight into how the principles of the “Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act” can be applied.This exploratory research effort will contribute to the development and application of new methods that should effectively create diversity champions amongst the geo/environmental science fields that recruit from the veteran community. The approach will be cross-institutional, and involve the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Eastern Los Angeles College (ELAC). By examining these two vastly different academic environments, the PIs will receive feedback and data that is much broader and can aid in the development of a refined approach that can be scaled. The project will be implemented withy 6 specific goals: 1) Recruit veterans with an interest in geo/environmental science STEM fields, and establish a cross-institutional community to facilitate said interest among similar peers, 2) Establish a support system, 3) Establish cross-institutional placement of veterans into geoscience and environmental labs for research opportunities, 4) Develop diverse leadership through the participation of members in various leadership engagements and roles, 5) Develop empathy and understanding of veteran related circumstances to the current geo/environmental science community, and 6) Record and analyze metrics on retention, performance, engagement, and development of veterans through the duration of their academic careers.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.