Baltimore Washington Alliance AGEP Planning Grant

Howard University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Howard University, Georgetown University, and Morgan State University have formed the Baltimore-Washington Area Alliance (BWA) and will undertake planning activities with this project. With the planning grant, BWA intends to assess current graduate student interest in faculty positions and to strengthen the existing Howard-UTEP Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) and Postdoc Institutes (PDI) informed by survey and other evaluation data. Intellectual Merit. Because of growing science and technology needs of an increasingly globalized economy, the United States is in greater need than ever before of a scientifically trained citizenry. This growing need coincides with significant demographic changes in the U.S., where minority populations that historically have been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are becoming an ever-larger share of the population. Ensuring that this population gains access to necessary training in STEM is an important national goal, and increasing the number of STEM professors from these backgrounds is an important step---as a matter of equity and as a matter of policy. This planning project will draw on findings from research literature about the importance of creating intellectual and social community for minority STEM students, breaking down barriers that isolate them from the informal culture of science, and creating professional networking opportunities that these students otherwise might not have. The planning project also draws on research that is specific to the National Science Foundation?s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, taking lessons learned from research about the program to create a more cohesive Alliance of colleges and universities. In drawing on this research, the proposal seeks to make the efforts of individual institutions coherent, allowing them to become more than the sum of their parts. BWA will leverage resources of a metropolitan area that is rich in professional development opportunities for minority students and the resources of 3 major universities in ways that address research-based findings about the needs of STEM minority students. It will do so in ways that maximize the efficacy of projects under the aegis of the national AGEP program. Broader Impact. The activities in this planning grant will influence STEM graduate education at two of the nation?s leading producers of African American STEM PhDs and will therefore have a noteworthy national effect on the pipeline of African Americans entering the professoriate. Additionally, the anticipated enhancement of the extant PFF and PDI will increase professional development and networking opportunities for BWA students and students from universities beyond the Alliance. The project also builds upon an existing consortium of 14 universities and includes the intention to design a structured, internet based, consortium-wide network of postdoc opportunities and faculty position listings. This network will create a registry of STEM trained minorities from which all 14 of the schools in the consortium can recruit new faculty and postdocs. This project will also improve the student level data including milestones in their educational careers.