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1. The Effects of Undergraduate Research Experiences as Reported by Texas A&M University System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Students

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.674761  

   Preuss, Michael; Merriweather, Samuel; Avila, John; Butler-Purry, Karen; Watson, Karan; Walton, Shannon; Obiomon, Pamela; Pezold, Frank; Murry, Jasmine; Roth, Michele; et al (May 2022, Frontiers in Education)

   In 1991, the Texas A&M University System was one of the first six Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) awardees. In the three decades of programming, several high impact practices (HIP) have been emphasized. One of them, undergraduate research (UR), is discussed. All members of the Alliance are part of the Texas A&M University System and undergraduate research was supported through a variety of initiatives on the Alliance campuses. Data presented chronicle student perspectives. Topics addressed are the impact of involvement in undergraduate research on academic outcomes, interest in further engagement with research, interest in graduate school, and career goals as well as the patterns of research engagement participants experienced and the forms of learning that resulted. These materials are presented regarding an audience that was overwhelmingly underrepresented minority students all of whom were pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees. Students reported UR influenced their academic outcomes, further engagement with research, interest in graduate school, and career goals while facilitating learning and skill development. These findings, for URM students from institutions with three different Carnegie classifications that are a predominantly white institution, two Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), and a historically Black college or university (HBCU), parallel outcomes reported in the literature for investigations focused on general student populations suggesting that UR benefits are generalizable regardless of institution type and ethnicity/race of the participant. Findings also suggest that these patterns apply regardless of the student’s year in school. Material presented details the research elements commonly included in TAMUS LSAMP UR experiences and in which areas students reported the most learning. Thus, this document touches on topics important in addressing development of an adequate, well-trained, and diverse STEM workforce. It also confirms the efficacy of a highly replicable approach to facilitating a HIP, undergraduate research, with students from underrepresented groups. 

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2. International Research Exposure: Impact on Early-Career, Undergraduate Engineering Students

   Preuss, Michael; Merriweather, Samuel; Butler-Purry, Karen; Walton, Shannon (October 2020, Proceedings of IConSES 2020--International Conference on Social and Education Science)

   Akerson, V.; Sahin, I. (Ed.)

   The Texas A&M University (TAMU) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) office provided funding to the Texas A&M University College of Engineering to support student participation in the Engineering Learning Community Introduction to Research (ELCIR) program. ELCIR is a two-week, study abroad, research program implemented in a learning community pattern. ELCIR has three purposes: (1) to expose sophomores to research, (2) to introduce students to cultural differences and global challenges, and (3) to provide students with the basic tools to prepare them for future research involvement. Participation in the multi-term program, which takes place at TAMU and in the Yucatan Peninsula, is limited to first-generation college students and/or students from underrepresented populations. The external evaluator for TAMU System LSAMP developed a survey for students to complete after their participation in the ELCIR international experience. Survey questions were designed to identify the impact of participation in ELCIR on students and gather participant suggestions for improvement of future LSAMP-supported international research experiences. The evaluator compiled information gathered from 92 participants during five years of ELCIR programming. This paper describes the participants’ self-reports of experience with and continued interest in study abroad, interest in another similar experience, subsequent involvement with undergraduate research, and ELCIR’s impact on their confidence regarding international travel, their awareness of, interest in, and plans regarding graduate school, their educational or career plans, and interest in employment outside the United States. Interest in or increases in interest in international travel, study abroad programming, graduate school, and employment outside the United States were found. These findings can inform engineering education programming for first-generation and minority students, an area of national need, for institutions across the United States. 

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3. Long-term Effects of STEM Enrichment Programs on Wage Differentials Among Under-Represented Minority Students

   https://doi.org/10.18060/26063  

   Ghazzawi, Dina; Pattison, Donna; Horn, Catherine (February 2023, Metropolitan Universities)

   Holton, Valerie (Ed.)

   This study focuses on the increasing disparities in STEM education achievement and long-term wage earnings of under-represented minority groups. As part of national efforts to improve the diversity of the STEM workforce, this study uses longitudinal data from the University of Houston’s Education Research Center (UH-ERC) to examine the effect of participation in a STEM focused intervention program (Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) on wage earnings across students from traditionally under-represented groups. Data analysis consisted of propensity score matching analysis, followed by an ordinal logistic regression model to measure program participation effects on wage earnings. Findings indicate a significant negative association between participation in STEM intervention program and long-term wage earnings. Results highlight the role of structural racism and human capital on perpetuating achievement and wage gaps across race and socio-economic status. Recommendations focus on career-preparedness as a tool to increase the human capital of under-represented groups, and institutional shifts in policy and program components that strive to reduce the impact of structural racism on this subpopulation of students. 

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4. LSAMP Bridges to the Doctorate: Preparing Future Minority Ph.D. Researchers through a Holistic Graduate Student Development Model

   Gloster, C.; McCullough, M.; Gowdy, G.; Bigsby, S.; Whittington, D.; Johnson-Taylor, J. (June 2023, ASEE annual conference proceedings)

   The importance of diversifying the national STEM workforce is well-established in the literature (Marrongelle, 2018). This need extends to graduate education in the STEM fields, leading N.C. A&T to invest considerably in graduate education and wraparound support initiatives that help graduate students build science identity and competencies for careers both within and beyond academia. The NSF-funded Bridges to the Doctorate project will integrate culturally reflective mentoring and professional development specifically designed for Black, Latinx, and Native American Ph.D. students. This holistic, graduate student development model includes academic and professional skill-building for STEM careers alongside targeted support for pursuing fellowship opportunities. This paper discusses the planned mentoring approach for the aforementioned program and previous approaches to mentoring graduate students used at N.C. A&T. The BD Fellows program will support formal and informal mentoring relationships, as mentoring contributes towards retention in STEM graduate programs (Ragins, 2007). BD Fellows will participate in monthly one-hour seminars on how to identify, establish, and maintain informal mentoring relationships (Schwartz et al., 2018; Parnes et al., 2020), while STEM faculty will attend seminars on leveraging their social networks as vital sources of mentorship for the BD Fellows. Using a multi-pronged collaborative approach, this model integrates the evidence-based domains of self-efficacy (Laurencelle & Scanlan, 2018; Lent et al., 1994; Lent et al., 2008), science/research identity (Lent et al., 2015; Zimmerman, 2000), and social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 2005; Lent and Brown, 2006) to recruit, enroll, and graduate LSAMP Fellows with STEM doctoral degrees. Guided by the theories, the following questions will be addressed: (1) To what extent is culturally reflective mentoring identified as a critical driver of B2D Fellows’ success? (2) To what extent are the program’s training components fostering increases in B2D Fellow’s self-efficacy, competency, and science identity? (3) What is the strength of the correlation between participation in the program training components, mentoring activities, and persistence in graduate school? (4) To what extent does the perceived importance of self-efficacy, competency, and science identity differ by race/ethnicity and gender? These data will be analyzed using both formative and summative assessments of program outcomes. Quantitative data will include pre-, post-, and exit surveys. Qualitative data will assess the impact of mentoring and program support. This study will be guided by established protocols that have been approved by the N.C. A&T IRB. It is anticipated that our BD Fellows program will significantly impact the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented minority STEM graduate students in our doctoral programs, thus producing a diverse workforce of STEM professionals. Materials from the program recruiting cycle, mentoring workshops, and the structured fellowship application process will be disseminated freely to other LSAMP and minority-serving institutions across the country. Strategies and outcomes of this project will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared in conference proceedings. 

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5. Minority Student Preparation for STEM PhD Study: Impact of NSF Bridge to the Doctorate Programming

   https://doi.org/10.46328/ijtes.v4i3.122  

   Preuss, Michael D.; Merriweather, Samuel P.; Walton, Shannon D.; Butler-Purry, Karen L. (June 2020, International Journal of Technology in Education and Science)

   The Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) project in 1991 as one of the six initial awardees. As part of these efforts and upon reaching eligibility, the TAMUS LSAMP applied for and received additional funding to support a Bridge to the Doctorate (BTD) program. BTD programming provides financial, educational, and social support to incoming STEM master’s degree and PhD students for the first two years of their graduate study. BTD cohorts consist of up to 12 fellows who participate in a program of academic and professional development seminars and workshops. In project evaluation, annual interviews were conducted with the TAMUS BTD participants, the vast majority of whom were underrepresented minorities (92%). During the interviews, the BTD students were asked to discuss ten topics some of which addressed concerns specific to the implementation of the BTD project. This report considers answers provided in the five topic areas which have broader applicability: 1) the learning achieved by participants through participation in BTD, 2) the personal impact of participation in BTD, 3) the influence of BTD on informants’ educational goals, 4) the influence of BTD on informants’ career goals, and 5) barriers the BTD participants perceived to pursuing a PhD. Eighty project participants responded to the questions between 2009 and 2018. They were from eight distinct cohorts of BTD students and represented 32 different areas of STEM specialization. Qualitative analysis of their responses confirmed that students perceived the elements of the TAMUS BTD project to be efficacious and that there was a set of nine seminars from which participants consistently reported benefit. Additional findings were eight key areas in which learning was reported by participants, four areas in which the programming  had personal impact, five influences on educational goals,  nine impacts on career goals, and a detailed list of barriers graduate students who are underrepresented minorities (URM) perceive to pursuing a doctoral degree. The proven and easily replicated pattern of support programming, the demonstrated results of this programming, and insight into barriers URMs perceive to pursuing a STEM doctorate are immediately applicable to URM graduate student support at many institutions of higher education. 

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