Akamai Mentor Conference

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

This conference will bring together past and present mentors of the successful undergraduate Akamai Internship Program in Hawai'i. The Akamai Internship Program has supported undergraduate research projects in Hawai'i to increase participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields by local Hawai'ians. At the conference, approximately 50 attendees consisting of mentors and interested colleagues will distill years of experience and practice of mentoring students and disseminate a model for mentoring that focuses on the project an intern does as a cornerstone for providing a productive experience in STEM. The conference will produce practical mentoring tools that can be used by the astronomy community. These tools will advance the translation of research on learning, equity, inclusion, and persistence. Participants will highlight the ways that they use the literature on STEM persistence and inclusive education to design a project for their intern. The conference will generate products that can be disseminated to the general astronomy community. The tools will be available through the Akamai website, presentations, and Akamai's extensive network. 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.