Urban Massachusetts LSAMP

University Of Massachusetts Boston, Dorchester MA

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Page A Urban Massachusetts Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Project Summary The Urban Massachusetts Alliance for Minority Participation (UMLSAMP) is comprised of the University of Massachusetts Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, and Wentworth Institute of Technology and their community college colleagues Bunker Hill, Roxbury, Bristol, and Middlesex Led by UMass Boston, The UMLSAMP is designed to address three interrelated problems. First, the number of underrepresented students at the Alliance institutions majoring in STEM fields is relatively small. In Fall 2004, only 820 Alliance undergraduates were enrolled in a STEM major, 12% of the total. Of the students who do enroll in a STEM major, far too few graduate--only 99 STEM BS degrees were awarded to underrepresented minority students by Alliance institutions in 2004. Finally, there is a lack of alignment between courses and programs offered by community colleges and the four-year institutions to which the majority of their students transfer. Lack of alignment also often greatly increases the amount of time it takes students to progress to degree completion. The Urban Massachusetts LSAMP (UMLSAMP) will aggressively recruit underrepresented minority students from local high schools and partner community colleges who have an interest in STEM. The UMLSAMP will implement new and expand existing bridge programs for incoming freshmen and for community college transfer students where students will take intensive math courses, interdisciplinary STEM courses and work part-time in research labs. The UMLSAMP will implement facilitated study groups for the gateway courses to further ensure success. AMP students will be provided mentored research experiences and other scholarly activities, including opportunities to attend research seminars, talks, and conferences. AMP students will have access to a drop in center and will receive intensive mentoring from peers, faculty, advisors focused on making sure the students, especially during the first two years, successfully progress into and through college and helping them develop and define their academic and career goals. Finally UMLSAMP members will focus on articulation and alignment of STEM courses and degree programs between the community colleges and the four year institutions. The Alliance members value the synergy that results from working collaboratively and, in addition to joint governance of the Alliance, have planned several activities to capitalize on the group?s collective wisdom and energy, including joint planning and implementation of activities, common data metrics and benchmarks and identification of institutional obstacles that impede the progress of underrepresented students in STEM majors, and an annual research and best practices conference will be rotated among the Alliance Institutions. We expect to achieve the following outcomes by the end of five years: 1. 50% increase in the number of Black, Hispanic, and Native American students majoring in STEM fields. 2. 150% increase the number of BS STEM degrees conferred on Black, Hispanic, and Native American students 3. 150% increase the number of students who successfully transfer from Alliance community colleges into BS STEM majors. Each of the Alliance members have extensive experience in minority student development and PROJECT SUMMARY Page A have drawn upon the literature on the retention of low income, first generation, and underrepresented students and studies of best practice in minority student development in the sciences (intellectual merit) in designing the proposed LSAMP. The Alliance will implement activities with intellectual merit which will have several broad impacts. First, the impact of project activities on student success in gateway math and science courses will be carefully evaluated and those that are most effective will be institutionalized. Second, because the project has a particular focus on underrepresented students and on transitioning community college students to baccalaureate degree programs, it will contribute important knowledge to the field. Finally, project results and effective strategies will be disseminated to other institutions through an annual report on "Lessons Learned" and "Best Practices."