This work in progress (WIP) paper shares experiences and lessons learned from the first three years in the development and implementation of a model to improve the preparation and transition of Hispanic STEM doctoral students into community college (CC) faculty positions by the Hispanic Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate (H-AGEP). This is a collaborative effort between the City College of New York (CCNY) and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in partnership with El Paso CC (EPCC), LaGuardia CC (LaCC), and Queensborough CC (QCC).
The proposed model addresses the important need of recruiting more Hispanic faculty at CC who can serve as outstanding teachers, mentors and role models to students at CC. Over 50% of Hispanics start their college journey at a community college while less than 5% of faculty in higher education is from Hispanic backgrounds. Increasing the can increase the number of Hispanic who receive degrees from community college and who transfer to 4 year institutions to obtain degrees in STEM. Higher representation of faculty from Hispanic and other racial/ethnic groups on campus have a positive impact on underrepresented minority student’s success when measured in grades and course completions as well as retention and degree completion.
The lessons learned came from a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis performed as part of a self-study conducted in December 2020. The study included H-AGEP fellows, CCNY and UTEP participant faculty, dissertation advisors, and CC faculty mentors. The lessons learned provide important feedback for program improvement as well as information to teams who may be interested in developing alliances and collaborations with similar goals. A key result of the assessment is the value that CC partners bring in supporting teaching training and in providing a positive perspective on careers at community college to the participating doctoral students.
The paper presents a brief summary of the H-AGEP model. Then it summarizes the findings from the self-study and concludes with the lessons learned from the process.
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Work in Progress: H-AGEP - A Model to Improve the Preparation and Transition for Hispanic STEM Doctoral Students into Community College Faculty Positions
This work in progress paper presents an overview of the Hispanic Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate (H-AGEP) program. H-AGEP is working on developing and implementing a new model to improve the preparation and transition of Hispanic STEM doctoral students into community college faculty positions. The partnership is a collaborative effort between the City College of New York (CCNY) (lead institution) and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) along with a group of partner community colleges: LaGuardia Community College, Queensborough Community College, and El Paso Community College. The H-AGEP model consists of three main elements: (1) a training and mentoring program for effective STEM teaching at community colleges; (2) a training program for effective mentoring of community college students in STEM research; and (3) a professional development program to address career preparation, transitioning, and advancement at academic careers in community colleges. H-AGEP research goals are: (1) to consider the collected evaluation and research data to determine what intervention activities are most impactful, and (2) to better understand the career-decision making process of Hispanic STEM doctoral students regarding whether they will seek employment at community colleges and other two-year institutions. An interesting aspect of the partnership is that the institutions in El Paso, Texas, serve primarily a Mexican-American student population while the New York institutions serve primarily a Hispanic population of Caribbean origin. This provides the unique opportunity to compare Hispanic students from both groups. The program evaluation: (1) documents and provides feedback on H-AGEP activities and model implementation; and (2) assesses the extent to which H-AGEP is achieving its intended outcomes. Assessment results on the first cohort of students in the program show the value of including community college faculty as career and teaching mentors in the program. Furthermore, the effect of model interventions in students from the first cohort show positive advances in improving teaching skills, increasing student professional networks, and increasing interest and awareness in careers at community college.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1723245
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10170435
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This work in progress (WIP) paper shares experiences and lessons learned from the first three years in the development and implementation of a model to improve the preparation and transition of Hispanic STEM doctoral students into community college (CC) faculty positions by the Hispanic Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate (H-AGEP). This is a collaborative effort between the City College of New York (CCNY) and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in partnership with El Paso CC (EPCC), LaGuardia CC (LaCC), and Queensborough CC (QCC). The proposed model addresses the important need of recruiting more Hispanic faculty at CC who can serve as outstanding teachers, mentors and role models to students at CC. Over 50% of Hispanics start their college journey at a community college while less than 5% of faculty in higher education is from Hispanic backgrounds. Increasing the can increase the number of Hispanic who receive degrees from community college and who transfer to 4 year institutions to obtain degrees in STEM. Higher representation of faculty from Hispanic and other racial/ethnic groups on campus have a positive impact on underrepresented minority student’s success when measured in grades and course completions as well as retention and degree completion. The lessons learned came from a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis performed as part of a self-study conducted in December 2020. The study included HAGEP fellows, CCNY and UTEP participant faculty, dissertation advisors, and CC faculty mentors. The lessons learned provide important feedback for program improvement as well as information to teams who may be interested in developing alliances and collaborations with similar goals. A key result of the assessment is the value that CC partners bring in supporting teaching training and in providing a positive perspective on careers at community college to the participating doctoral students. The paper presents a brief summary of the H-AGEP model. Then it summarizes the findings from the self-study and concludes with the lessons learned from the process.more » « less
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Hispanics are grossly underrepresented in the receipt of STEM Ph.Ds. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Engineering Indicators ( Trapani and Hale, 2019 ) suggest that only 7.8% of S and E doctoral recipients are Hispanic while their representation in the population is more than twice that, and that figure goes even higher if restricted to those within the college-age range. To address this gap, the NSF has awarded a grant (the Hispanic Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, H-AGEP) to the City College of New York and the University of Texas at El Paso to work with Hispanic STEM doctoral students to provide teaching training and preparation for academic positions so they can become role models for Hispanic community college undergraduates. In working to understand the career-decision making of our Fellows, in-depth interviews were conducted ( n = 13) to understand what put them on the path to defy the odds and become a STEM doctoral recipient. Interview results suggest that isolated, critical incidents and chance events were responsible for a number of our students entering into doctoral programs. This research suggests that for some Hispanic STEM doctoral students the experience of chance events meant the path to a STEM doctorate was not assured from a young age and further, that the provision of “planned” critical incidents may support an increase in Hispanic STEM doctoral enrollment.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35641
