SOCIETY OF WETLAND SCIENTISTS (SWS) MULTICULTURAL MENTORING PROGRAM: UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING AT THE ANNUAL MEETING

Society Of Wetland Scientists, Middleton WI

Investigators

Abstract

The Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Multicultural Mentoring Program is in its 17th year. This new award will support the participation in the program of seven undergraduate students per year from underrepresented groups for the next four years. SWS recognizes the need to reach out to underrepresented groups to provide intellectual opportunities for personal growth and development. Attendance of a select group of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups at an annual scientific meeting provides each student with a perspective on and exposure to the breadth and depth of wetland science and personal contacts that cannot be obtained at a single academic home institution. Peer to peer mentoring involving pairing former SWS Multicultural Mentoring Program participants that are now graduate students with undergraduate students will help create an inclusive community and increase retention of undergraduate students in science. This award will also continue a productive and synergistic collaboration between the much larger minority undergraduate mentoring program of the Ecological Society of America (ESA SEEDS); two participants from SWS are invited to attend the annual ESA SEEDS leadership meeting and bring their experiences back to the SWS annual meeting. A summary of participant survey results will be published in the SWS bulletin, Wetland Science and Practice. SWS recognizes the need to reach out to underrepresented groups to provide intellectual opportunities for personal growth and development. Because SWS spans academic, government, and private consulting sectors, students are able to tailor their daily activities to their personal interests in wetland science. A variety of strategies (social events, field trips, mentoring, career development workshops, leadership training through ESA SEEDS) will provide guidance and boost self-assurance for the award recipients and will lead to ethnic and racial diversification of the ecological sciences. By pairing undergraduate students with graduate student or faculty mentors at both the SWS and ESA annual meetings and by providing workshops and symposia oriented toward career development, SWS is fostering active participation and discussion, key components of advancing science and promoting the intellectual development of undergraduate students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.