This grant supports a budding partnership between Trinity Washington University, one of a handful of institutions in the country to be classified as both a Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), and Johns Hopkins University (JHU), which seeks to provide research experiences spanning one academic year and one summer. Specifically, grant funds will be used to establish a learning community for both Trinity and Hopkins faculty and trainees focused on inclusive teaching and mentoring practices; establish a course-based undergraduate research experience for 10 Trinity “SURE Scholars,” including a curricular component to introduce students to research, a credit-bearing course on research excellence, and a 10-week summer research experience at JHU; and establish a layered mentoring structure, including faculty from both institutions and graduate students from JHU.

This grant supports a budding partnership between two institutions in New York, Lehman College (a Hispanic Serving Institution) and Stony Brook University (a predominantly white institution), which seeks to address issues of representation in the Geosciences—one of the least diverse STEM fields in terms of gender, race, and disability. Grant funds will facilitate a pathway for Lehman undergraduates to Stony Brook’s graduate programs and catalyze a discussion about systemic change. Specifically, the project team will visit Lehman College to discuss research opportunities available at Stony Brook and begin recruiting for Summer research placements; host Lehman faculty and students at Stony Brook for lab demonstrations, with an emphasis on showcasing possible summer research opportunities; host Lehman students for 8 weeks and Lehman faculty for 1-2 weeks at a time over the summer of 2022; and undertake an extensive evaluation of the Summer pilot program, concluding with a detailed report on takeaways and plans for future funding.

This grant supports a pilot initiative to establish a Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander STEM Consortium (NHPISC), with the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa) serving as the lead in partnership with the University of Guam and College of the Marshall Islands. The consortium seeks to address issues of representation in STEM at the graduate level. Specifically, grant funds will be used to establish undergraduate research experiences for 8 undergraduate students (4 at UH Mānoa, 2 at Guam, 2 at Marshall Islands); provide professional development opportunities for undergraduate students to learn more about applying to and pursuing graduate education; develop a cross-institutional mentorship program with graduate students serving as mentors for undergraduates; coordinate an 8-week summer pathway program for 10 students (across the three institutions) per year; host an Indigenous faculty spotlight series; and facilitate faculty inquiry seminars to promote faculty collaboration across the involved institutions.

The Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Lab (RADIAL) is a project of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) that aims to use radio astronomy as a means to develop a diverse STEM workforce.  Representing a partnership between 14 separate Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), NRAO, and the University of Wisconsin and led by Anja Fourie, RADIAL is launching a major effort to facilitate successful enrollment of undergraduate students at its MSI partners into graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin.  Funds from this grant will support numerous aspects of RADIAL’s efforts, including the creation of undergraduate certificate programs in Data Intensive Research in Radio Astronomy at its partner institutions; the creation of mentoring and training experiences for MSI students, including stipend support; guaranteed admission and funding to attend graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin for up to four students from participating MSIs; assignment of student liaison officers to represent students withing the alliance; the convening of annual science colloquium; and the creation of a task force to research, report, and ultimately train graduate programs on holistic graduate admissions processes.  Grant funds will be administered by Associated Universities Inc, acting as a fiscal agent for the project.

This grant supports a partnership between Spelman College and Michigan State University (MSU) to create an innovative educational pipeline that couples high quality instruction in cutting edge data science with particularized training in disciplinary sciences like mathematics and physics. Led by Monica Stephens Cooley (Spelman) and Andrew Christlieb (MSU), the five-year (“3+2”) program starts at Spelman and is aimed at undergraduate STEM majors who are interested in pursuing an advanced degree in STEM-focused data science.  Developed in coordination with MSU, the Spelman curriculum has been curated to equip Black women undergraduates with skills and training that will make them attractive candidates for admission to MSU’s highly competitive, two-year master’s degree program in data science. Grant funds will support the recruitment and training of an initial cohort of ten Spelman students over the next two years. In addition to the program’s educational merits, the participation of Spelman, both a women’s college and a Historically Black College, in the partnership represents an exciting new avenue for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM graduate education and could serve as a model for the important role Minority Serving Institutions have to play in increasing women’s and Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o graduate degree attainment in the sciences and engineering.

This grant supports a series of initiatives led by Catherine Propper at North Arizona University (NAU) to facilitate both the recruitment of Indigenous and Latina/o students into STEM graduate education programs at NAU and transform graduate education at NAU toward a more student-centered educational model that is oriented toward student success.  The primary effort will be the creation of a cohort-based bridge program between NAU and partners Diné College, a tribal college operated by the Navajo Nation, and NAU-Yuma, a Hispanic Serving Institution whose student body is drawn largely from the largely Latina/o population around Yuma, Arizona.  Using structured mentoring, course exchanges, retreats, and other curricular and programmatic efforts, the program will attempt to facilitate a pipeline bringing undergraduates from Diné and Yuma into STEM master’s degree programs at the NAU main campus.  Other planned efforts include revising graduate admissions processes in order to be more inclusive and to increase diversity across the institutions, ongoing faculty training in order to transform relationships and environments in labs and classrooms, and engaging family members in order to ensure a holistic approach to student success. 

This grant supports an initiative at Georgia State University (GSU) to create an innovative program designed to further the recruitment, persistence, and progression of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o undergraduates into quantitative science graduate programs around the nation.  Created in partnership with the National Math Alliance, the “Math Path Program” is comprised of numerous components.  The program will include a structured math mentoring program that will automatically opt-in all first-year GSU math students.  First-year majors in math-heavy disciplines like statistics or physics will also be invited and encouraged to participate, with a particular focus on including Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students. GSU will also launch a summer internship program, develop a series of mentored math teams for second-year students, work with the National Math Alliance to develop programming that facilitates the graduate application process, and create a graduate school “transition grant” that will defray site visits, moving costs, and other expenses for students who apply and attend STEM graduate programs.  Partnering with GSU in the effort are a series of graduate programs at Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, and Purdue University, who collectively offer a diverse variety of graduate programs where GSU students may choose to continue their education.

This grant supports a partnership between the University of Puerto Rico Cayey (UPRC; a Hispanic Serving Institution) and the University of Buffalo (UB) that seeks to develop sustainable pathways to graduate education in chemistry, a field wherein only 6.2% of 2018 Ph.D. recipients identified as Hispanic. Grant funds will allow UPRC to host an introductory seminar; select six participants for a 10-week summer research program at UB; provide research opportunities and mentoring for the six selected participants; and provide additional academic enrichment activities—all designed in collaboration with UB chemistry faculty—to provide students with the skills and training to pursue and succeed in graduate study. Students successfully completing the program will be offered admission into the UB graduate chemistry program.

This grant supports an emerging partnership between New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT; a Hispanic Serving Institution) and Navajo Technical University (NTU; a Tribal University). The two institutions recently signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue a collaborative effort to bring safe, clean drinking water to Navajo households; demonstrating how these institutions go beyond serving students but serve their communities as well. Building on their research collaborations, the institutions now seek to develop a bridge into graduate programs for NTU students, with an emphasis on environmental science.  Grant funds allow the institutions to identify and establish a relationship with a mentor university; host a focus group at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society with other institutional leaders; facilitate surveys, interviews, and focus groups with students, alumni, and faculty to gain insights into systemic barriers that impede pathways to graduate education; facilitate interviews and focus groups with administrators to understand institutional priorities, plans, and goals; and formulate an action plan to implement change at each institution, including recommendations that will be presented to senior administrators.