I-Corps: Career Advancement for STEM Faculty through Summer Writing Retreats and Online Communities

Jackson State University, Jackson MS

Investigators

Abstract

Women of color in STEM disciplines at HBCUs often have a series of needs which, when met, have a positive impact on professional development and career advancement. Such faculty teach 3-4 courses per semester at a minority serving institution (or primarily undergraduate institution), or are a minority within their department and, therefore, tend to have high student advising/mentoring demands; or are early career faculty who may have difficulty negotiating the competing demands of teaching, service, and research. They may even be mid-career faculty who are seeking to develop a steady track record of contribution to the discipline; and faculty who need coaching to navigate the campus climate while maintaining a solid record of research and make progress toward tenure and promotion. Currently, these needs are not being met fully at most institutions. When they are partially met it is through faculty development efforts that are often not discipline specific or are through an individual scholar's search for a career mentor or collaborator who may or may not be in the scholar's field of study. The overall purpose of this proposal is to provide summer writing retreats with online intellectual community follow-up services to the higher education community to increase scholarly productivity and career advancement of women of color in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines while also being applicable to diverse scholars in other disciplines, especially those from underrepresented groups. Building from the knowledge gained from a previously funded research project, this team proposes to explore the feasibility of commercializing the following scholarly productivity resources: (1) a one week, in-residence Summer Writing Retreat; (2) a nine-week online service featuring access to accountability coaches and STEM consultants to facilitate completion of the summer writing project; and (3) an online academic year follow-up resource which includes expanded access to scholarly writing productivity tools such as peer writing groups, facilitated career advancement discussion groups, research and scholarly agenda planning tools, daily writing plans, and peer productivity partners. The products provided will increase the scholarly productivity of individual faculty consumers while also supporting institutional consumers in the acquisition of a heightened awareness of the types of coaching, accountability, and collaboration that are necessary to recruit, retain, and support other underrepresented populations in their advancement in STEM academic careers.