The National Action Council on Minorities in Engineering (NACME) administers the Foundation’s graduate scholarship programs, including the Minority PhD program (MPHD) and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP).  In this role, NACME maintains records on MPHD and SIGP graduate students and tracks and manages the disbursement of Sloan scholarship and other funding commitments.   NACME also plays an essential role both in the analysis of supported graduate students performance and outcomes, and in managing the community of campus participants in Sloan programs. Funds from this grant will support these activities for years. In addition to continued execution of this role, NACME will pursue three additional objectives over the course of the three-year grant period.  First it will expand its analysis of student records to discover trends impacting the performance of Sloan scholars in the MPHD and SIGP programs.  Second, it will expand and assess efforts to build community among UCEMs with the implementation and management of a new online platform, SloanConnect, and other associated strategies.  Third it will test potential new surveys and program elements to assess their value for implementation.

The Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP), led by Professors Kevin Gibson and Kenneth Ridgway at Purdue, extends across eight campuses from New York to Alaska for the support of indigenous (Native American/Alaska Native) students.  SIGP seeks to increase the number of indigenous graduate students obtaining degrees in STEM; to maintain a critical mass of indigenous graduate students at each site and collectively across the Partnership; and to create supportive and knowledgeable local educational communities focused on indigenous students.  Partnership members provide first-class scientific education and training in concert with students’ cultural identity, and prepare SIGP students to succeed in their chosen professions and to contribute to their communities, institutions, and disciplines. Over the 48-month grant period, SIGP plans to recruit 123 Native American graduate students while maintaining a retention/graduation rate that equals or exceeds 85%.  Through a new undergraduate “feeder” program with the University of North Carolina, Asheville, SIGP also aims to increase recruitment of students from the southeastern United States.

Funds from this grant provide graduate scholarships, mentoring, community building, and other support to cohorts of M.S. and Ph.D. students participating in the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP). Supported students are American Indian or Alaska Native scholars enrolled in graduate degree programs in STEM fields at one of the SIGP’s participating campuses: the University of Alaska (Anchorage and Fairbanks), the University of Arizona, the Montana University System (University of Montana, Montana State University, and Montana Tech), Purdue University, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Called Sloan Scholars, these students receive fellowships in amounts varying between $20,000 and $40,000. 

Each summer, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, an independent nonprofit based in Berkeley California, invites 18 talented mathematics undergraduates to the UC Berkeley campus for the summer to provide them with a high-quality research experience in the mathematical sciences.  The program recruits talented undergraduate students from gender and racial/ethnic populations historically underrepresented in the mathematical sciences and focuses on equipping them with the training and the support network to enter and succeed in graduate study.  The program receives high marks from student participants, and program alumni apply and are admitted to graduate programs at a rate much higher than the national average.  Grant funds provide core operating support to the program for a period of four years.