SEEDS - Opening Diverse Doors to Ecology

Ecological Society Of America, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) represents over 10,000 members committed to a broad and deep understanding of life on Earth. In 1996, ESA launched the first phase of a new program, called Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS), intentionally designed to retain underrepresented minority undergraduate students in the field of ecology through intensive mentoring at the individual and small group levels. Since then SEEDS has grown and expanded to include field trips to ecological research sites, a leadership workshop, a research fellowship program, and partnerships with other organizations and networks. Over 500 minority students have been served by SEEDS over the years. The current project is Phase IV of SEEDS and is based on results of an independent program evaluation in 2014. In this phase a set of structured workshops and conferences will be integrated into a sequence of activities that build upon previous student experiences and a designed support infrastructure. Three dimensions of experience and support, personal, cultural and institutional, are interwoven during and between proposed program activities. SEEDS students will work with mentors to identify opportunities in five areas that will help them advance in science careers: research experiences, skills workshops, presentations at scientific meetings, community projects, and completed LinkedIn profiles and active participation in social media. SEEDS ecology field experiences serve primarily freshmen and sophomores or those who have no prior research background. In this way, students are introduced to ecology earlier in their undergraduate careers and motivated to consider the wide variety of research and career options available. Travel awards to ESA annual meetings support more advanced students who aspire to careers in ecology by more fully integrating them into the large family of professional ecologists. New dimensions in Phase IV include increased support for the development of SEEDS chapters at institutions across the U.S., formal partnerships with specific field-based research organizations and networks, and longer-term mentoring of individual SEEDS students. SEEDS is a cohesive, focused and future-looking program, critically important for enhancing the participation of under-represented groups where agency support, and real progress, has historically been weak.