Operated by the Social Science Research Council, the Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network (SSMN) is an alumni organization for graduates of Sloan’s Minority Ph.D. program. SSMN provides networking and continued professional development opportunities for those alumni who continue to work in academia. The network also provides a means for the Foundation to follow the careers of program graduates and thus to help in assessing its impact. SSMN offerings include a directory with up-to-date information on the 1,124 graduates of the Minority Ph.D. program, a digital newsletter featuring relevant community news as well as long-form interviews and short spotlight pieces highlighting the achievements of Sloan Scholar alumni, a boot camp for early-career academics, a skill-development webinar series, a biennial leadership program for tenured alumni, and a grants program that provides travel or research funding for selected program graduates. Additional funds will support initial work exploring whether and how the network might be expanded to provide services to the roughly 40 percent of Sloan alumni who work outside academia.

According to the American Economic Association, only 15 Black Americans received a Ph.D. in economics in 2016. Of those 15, only five were women. This grant supports an effort by Spelman College to meaningfully improve those numbers through a set of interrelated initiatives designed to instill in black undergraduate women an interest in economics as a profession and prepare them to succeed in graduate study in the field. Funded activities include a summer bridge program for incoming freshmen aimed at strengthening participants’ core mathematical competencies; a distinguished speaker series featuring successful women of color who have made a career in economics; initiatives designed to improve the chances of successful application to an economics graduate program, including a journal club, GRE prep training, and a summer program that would provide economic research experience; and facilitated discussions of the challenges women and women of color face in white-male-dominated environments. The program will be supplemented with a scholarship fund that will ensure equal access to program offerings regardless of students’ economic circumstances. Grant funds will support these and associated administrative costs for three years.

The Handbook on Diversity and the Law: Navigating a Complex Landscape to Foster Greater Faculty and Student Diversity in Higher Education is a comprehensive handbook for college and university administrators that provides practical, actionable guidance on how to design effective, legally compliant programs that advance diversity. Originally produced in 2010 with the help of a Sloan Foundation grant, the Handbook needs an update that reflects the myriad changes to the legal landscape since its publication. This grant to the American Association for the Advancement of Science provides funding for that purpose.   The Handbook on Diversity and the Law Edition 2 will add descriptions and analyses of recent court and agency decisions and changes to federal policy; provide new suggestions for process management, governance, structural barrier removal, and communications; and operationalize these resources through new user-friendly tools and training materials.

This grant funds a joint effort by Barnard College and Columbia University’s School of Engineering to prepare undergraduate women to succeed in an accelerated M.S. degree program in engineering. Selected students will complete a four-year undergraduate major at Barnard coupled with a one-year master’s degree at Columbia Engineering, for a “4+1” program. Students from racial and ethnic groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering will be a special target for recruitment into the program, particularly those from low-income families. Four cohorts of eight students each will receive support across their junior and senior years at Barnard and their master’s year at Columbia. Barnard and Columbia Engineering will build a comprehensive structure of support for students in the program, including direct faculty advising, well-delineated paths for academic courses beginning in the junior year, career counseling, cohort-level support, and financial aid to encourage participation and success. All students will be guaranteed support for summer research experiences for two years, research-based cohort activities, and intensive faculty advising. Nine diverse scholastic pathways have been identified through the program to date, including mapping a major in chemistry to an M.S. in chemical engineering, and opportunities for math, statistics, economics, computer science, or physics majors to earn one of five M.S. degrees in the Columbia Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring is an annual 3.5-day professional development conference for underrepresented minority doctoral students and recent Ph.D. recipients. Organized by the Southern Regional Education Board, the Institute is the single largest gathering in the country of underrepresented scholars pursuing advanced degrees. It presents an unrivaled opportunity for building community with and among such scholars and for addressing their specific educational and professional needs. The Institute also plays a central role in the Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. program. More than 150 scholars supported through the Sloan University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring attend each year. Attendees hear plenary speakers talk on substantive issues in graduate education and may choose from a large variety of workshops addressing topics across every stage of the educational pipeline, from the challenges of adapting to graduate study as a first-year student, to dissertation guidance, to making informed choices about the job market. The Institute also offers programming designed to build community among attendees, forge professional connections, celebrate the achievements of scholars, and introduce attendees to professional mentors and recruiters.  Funds from this grant provide partial support for the Institute for a period of four years.

This grant to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) covers expected costs and obligations associated with three years of continued operation of the University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEMs) at Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Pennsylvania State University. UCEMs are the primary funding model for the Sloan Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. (MPHD) program and NACME provides administrative and fiscal support for management of all Sloan funding for UCEMs. Funds granted to each UCEM are used primarily for $40,000 scholarships for underrepresented minority doctoral students in STEM fields. Across the three UCEMs, an estimated 61 students will receive such scholarships over the next three years, with an estimated 21 “matching” students receiving additional support from UCEM host institutions. All these students will be designated as Sloan Scholars and become eligible for other Sloan-supported opportunities and services. Additional grant funds support programmatic expenses associated with the recruitment, retention, and mentoring of these students; activities to promote their successful completion of graduate study; efforts to institutionalize UCEM priorities, policies, and practices by the conclusion of the three-year grant period; and a series of interrelated activities by NACME to support the UCEM community.