Training Successful Trajectories: Interventions to Increase Minority Student and Future Engineering and Other STEM Faculty Application Success Rates

Villanova University, Villanova PA

Investigators

Abstract

Many communities of color remain significantly underrepresented at the doctoral level in all STEM fields; the engineering fields are particularly difficult to increase racial and ethnic representation among domestic groups. Many doctoral applicants of color, who are otherwise well-qualified in education and experience, are underserved in the area of graduate school application support, specifically in the development of self-presentation skills necessary to win a major fellowship, gain admission to graduate school, and land a quality position in their field. While underrepresented students at well-resourced universities and colleges are offered recruitment for fellowships, preparation workshops, and professional advising to develop such self-presentation skills, these services are often lacking at institutions of higher learning that do not have the human and financial resources to offer such professionalization training. Without this support, many underrepresented doctoral students are less likely to be successful in securing a fellowship and are gaining admission to complete graduate school. This grant project focuses on remedying this issue by offering underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars, who will all be future faculty, the kind of self-presentation training offered during that Boot Camp (and at well-resourced universities and colleges), and using measurable outcomes to test the efficacy of four different types of intervention. This project has immense potential broadening participation in engineering and other STEM field by studying and comparing four different interventions for underrepresented students, and the findings from the research study will provide practical insights into the most effective training of vital professional development skills. Over two years, ninety underrepresented students, along with future faculty (e.g., postdocs) and current faculty, will receive first-rate training. By assessing participant knowledge, their application numbers, and the results of their applications, the investigators will evaluate content delivery, consultation efficacy, and the effectiveness of training methods and materials. After participating in this program, the 90 trainees (e.g., LSAMP students, postdocs, and faculty) will take their training with them; this training will positively influence their professional trajectories throughout their careers. Beyond training these future leaders, the most important result of the project will be the compilation, analysis, and dissemination of the research findings to a broad audience, so that future programs across the country will have the benefit of research into which types of training content and delivery methods most successfully support URM STEM students (and current and future faculty) with applications to graduate school, fellowships, and grants.