Louis Stokes Renewal STEM Pathways and Research Alliance: Islands of Opportunity Alliance (IOA)

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in their efforts to significantly increase the numbers of students matriculating into and successfully completing high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in order to diversify the STEM workforce and supports the production of scholarly research in STEM broadening participation. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming undergraduate STEM education through innovative, evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies, and relevant educational experiences in support of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines: Blacks and African Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. These strategies facilitate the production of highly competitive students motivated to pursue graduate education or careers in STEM. For the United States (U.S.) to remain globally competitive, it is vital that it taps into the talent of all its citizens and provides exceptional educational preparedness in STEM areas that underpin the knowledge-based economy. The Islands of Opportunity Alliance is made up of 12 partner institutions including universities and community colleges in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands. This network brings together a unique set of institutions that, while geographically separated and often under-resourced, are effectively sole providers for access to higher education of their indigenous Pacific Islander populations. The Alliance is positioned for sustained quantitative and qualitative impact on STEM graduation and graduate school entry based on a sophisticated understanding of Pacific Islander family, community, and cultural issues that affect STEM participation. The vision of the Alliance is to prepare a diverse, highly competitive, and empowered STEM workforce of historically excluded populations of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Providing accessible, inclusive, and culturally resonant undergraduate education and research experiences rooted in Indigenous languages, values, and cultures will positively impact retention, persistence and graduation rates for STEM degree attainment and entry into graduate school. The goals of the Alliance are to develop STEM learning communities on each campus for research engagement, skills-building, and experiential learning, to provide opportunities for STEM “becoming” (evolution of a STEM identity) and “belonging” (being accepted and valued in STEM), and to produce and disseminate new scholarly research on broadening participation. The outcomes of the project are the design of STEM learning communities with increased recruitment and more effective transfer pathways, culturally grounded research experiences following Pacific cultural protocols of research, best practices for developing culturally-sustaining STEM programming, and increased numbers of students graduating in the STEM fields and entering graduate school. 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.