This grant supports an emerging partnership between three public higher education institutions in Maryland: University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Bowie State University (BSU)—both Historically Black Universities—and the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). This partnership seeks to identify obstacles deterring underrepresented Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students from pursuing STEM graduate degrees, understand institutional biases that limit these students’ entry and degree completion, and develop a pathway for successful STEM graduate education.  Grant funds will allow the team to deploy surveys, conduct focus groups, and hold in-depth interviews of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students and alumni at all three institutions to explore and understand the root causes of barriers; identify 3-5 STEM UMCP departments/subfields in which to pilot the pathway; collect and analyze data to re-examine graduate admissions policies and requirements at UMCP; deploy surveys and interviews with faculty to assess perception of UMCP’s graduate STEM climate; deploy surveys and interviews with academic leadership at UMCP; create a memorandum of understanding to lay the foundation of institutional collaborations; and generate a report of findings to present to university leadership and administration.

This grant supports a budding partnership between Tuskegee University (a Historically Black University) and Columbia University that seeks to create sustainable pathways to graduate education for underrepresented minority students by expanding existing programs at Columbia to Tuskegee students. Specifically, grant funds allow the partnership to create a foundation for a biomedical engineering program at Tuskegee, drawing on the expertise of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Columbia; create a seed grants program for research collaborations between faculty at Tuskegee and Columbia, including funding a co-advised Master’s student at Tuskegee and encouraging that student to apply to a Ph.D. program at Columbia; create a new position for a Tuskegee alumnus in Columbia’s Bridge-to-the-Ph.D. program; augment and codify engineering design challenges involving Tuskegee and Columbia undergraduates; and dedicate four positions in the Amazon-Columbia Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program for Tuskegee students, who will also conduct co-advised research during the academic year at Tuskegee.

This grant supports a new partnership between Rutgers-Newark (RU-NWK; a Hispanic Serving Institution) and Rutgers-New Brunswick (RU-NB) that seeks to create sustainable pathways to graduate education for underrepresented Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students in the geosciences, one of the least diverse STEM fields in terms of both race/ethnicity and gender. Specifically, grant funds allow the program to recruit and train 15-20 undergraduates, 8-10 graduate students, and 20-30 faculty to act as mentors; host a two-week workshop involving fieldwork with geoscientists and engagement with stakeholders throughout New Jersey; host a series of anti-racist educational seminars; and host a series of mentoring workshops for faculty, including post-workshop activities for continuous learning. Mentoring will be provided by RU-NWK graduate students to RU-NB undergraduates, thus positioning the Minority Serving Institution as the leader on issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.