LSAMP: Kentucky-West Virginia Alliance for Minority Participation

  • Todd, Lee (PI)
  • Omer, Ingrid St (CoI)
  • Yopp, John (CoI)

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

LSAMP: Kentucky - West Virginia Alliance for Minority Participation Project Summary Increasing both the total number of STEM degrees awarded, and the number of STEM degrees awarded to underrepresented students, are priorities in both West Virginia and Kentucky. The 2000 Census reported that over 25% of the U.S. population was African- American, Hispanic or Native American. These same minority groups made up only 9% and 4.1% of the population in Kentucky and West Virginia respectively. These numbers represent a recruitment challenge for the Alliance but have also served to strengthen the resolve of the participating institutions. The KY - WV LSAMP alliance is a collaboration of ten academic institutions, the KY-NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the WV-NSF EPSCoR, two state agencies, and the initial stage of a developing industrial support base. The Alliance partners submit this Phase I proposal to significantly increase the quality and quantity of underrepresented students receiving baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields, and enhance their research career aspirations. The current baseline total number of minority STEM baccalaureate degrees annually for these Alliance institutions is 128. This value is derived from 5-year averages where available to more accurately establish an appropriate baseline value. Current institutional databases are unable to individually distinguish Asian and Pacific Islanders. Thus, the values reported for minority populations in this proposal consist of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The 5-year target at the end of the Phase I project is to increase this number by 111%, achieving an annual minority STEM baccalaureate degree production of 270. The partners of the KY - WV LSAMP submit this Phase I LSAMP proposal to reach the goal of creating diverse campus environments and increasing minority STEM baccalaureate degree production. The developed approach incorporates those six identified characteristics of successful programs in a manner tailored for the Alliance institutions and the two states. The focus areas for our approach are: . Recruitment and retention . Research experiences . Transitional experiences . Climate . Curriculum reform . Postgraduate career aspirations . Role models In addition to individual campus activities in these areas, the Alliance will be enhanced by a best-practices committee of partner institutions for each focus area. Alliance-wide activities include an annual student research symposium, and mrkshops on such topics as the benefits of graduate school, preparation for graduate school, research career options, incorporating diversity into the curriculum, mentoring, and recruitment and retention of minority STEM faculty. The potential impact of this program will be visible on both campus and state levels. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity is the increased knowledge base related to teaching and learning practices for STEM disciplines, the knowledge base regarding practices for improved retention, and the development of improved curriculum materials and practices for STEM disciplines. The foremost broader impact is the increase in minority STEM baccalaureate degree production. This will broaden the math, science, and engineering participation of underrepresented students in two states. The increase in skilled workforce has the potential to significantly stimulate the competitive position of the two states relative to that available with the current educational levels, and in doing so, attract new jobs which diversify the economic base. Improvements in the faculty demographics add expanded research capacity to academic community and broaden the participation of underrepresented faculty in STEM disciplines.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date11/1/0610/31/12

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