Planning Grant: Connecting Our Unit throughv Relationships and Allyships in Geoscience (COURAGE)

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

The “Connecting Our Unit through Relationships and Allyships in GEoscience” or COURAGE project is a planning-track project that will lay the groundwork within the Department of Geological Sciences (GEOL) at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CUB) for a future implementation-track project. The goal is to transform the culture of the geoscience community by broadening participation of graduate students who come from historically underrepresented or marginalized communities in geoscience (HUCG) and building community partnerships for future community-based research that contributes to solutions to the complex environmental and societal challenges imposed by climate change. Recognizing that efforts to broaden participation in geoscience depends on relationships, this planning-track project will enact activities based on reciprocal relationships that foster community building within GEOL and lead to partnerships with local communities. To facilitate the alignment of relationships between geoscience faculty, graduate students, and community partners for the future conduct of community-based research, the proposed planning-track project will focus on building capacity among our GEOL faculty, building community among our GEOL graduate students, building relationships between faculty and graduate students, and building relationships between faculty and community partners. Thus, the intellectual focus of the proposed planning-track project is two-fold. First is to implement strategies and activities to overcome apparent barriers to community-based research with HUCG graduate students. Second is to undertake an introspective summative evaluation to describe (i) how existing norms and practices for broadening participation in GEOL evolve during the life of the project and (ii) the level of readiness for undertaking a future implementation-track project or similar activities. During the life of the project, GEOL faculty members and faculty members in other geoscience units will be impacted through their participation in two professional development programs as well as all geoscience graduate students through their participation in planning and/or participating in mentoring activities, recruiting activities, and other project activities. Furthermore, all GEOL faculty members are expected to be impacted by their graduate students’ engagement in project activities. The project will be a vehicle for open discussions and synergistic interactions between faculty and graduate students around broadening participation in geoscience. The project is also expected to impact ~10 faculty members and ~50 graduate students in other geoscience units; 100s of individuals from the local community; and ~10 local government agencies, private industries, and non-profit organizations. During the life of the project, it is also expected that geoscientists at CUB will connect with and develop relationships with members of local communities and form partnerships that could lead to mutually edifying community-based research that contributes to solutions to the complex environmental and societal challenges imposed by climate change. The cumulative impact of the planning-track project is to have the groundwork for geoscientists at CUB to pursue a CTGC implementation-track project or similar activities in the future. 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.