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Los desastres naturales recientes, incluida la pandemia del Covid-19, los huracanes y los terremotos, han presentado importantes retos para el aprendizaje de los estudiantes en todo el mundo. Para fomentar oportunidades para los estudiantes, profesores de nuestra universidad han presentado dos iniciativas financiadas por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias (NSF, por sus siglas en inglés) de Estados Unidos. Este artículo se enfoca en presentar estas iniciativas educativas: el Ecosistema de Apoyo Académico y Socioemocional para Estudiantes Talentosos de Bajos Ingresos (ASSETS, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Programa de Educación Subgraduada en Infraestructura Resiliente y Sostenibilidad (RISE-UP, por sus siglas en inglés). Ambas iniciativas comparten el objetivo común de brindar oportunidades a estudiantes académicamente talentosos que cursan carreras en STEM (Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas). Este artículo describe las metas y el trabajo realizado hasta la fecha en los proyectos educativos RISE-UP y ASSETS. Se espera que estas intervenciones puedan llevar a mayores niveles de participación, retención y tasas de graduación entre los estudiantes participantes, en comparación con sus contrapartes no participantes, y que estén mejor preparados para tener éxito en sus carreras profesionales. Sin embargo, debemos esperar hasta el final del estudio para confirmar estos resultados. 

This research to practice paper describes two NSF-funded projects: The “Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success” (PEARLS) and the “Academic and Socioemotional Support Ecosystem for Talented low-income STEM Students” (ASSETS). These initiatives aim to support low-income, academically talented students pursuing STEM degrees, offering academic, socio-emotional, and financial assistance. Both projects provide mentoring, workshops, mental health services, and scholarships. Outcomes have shown increased engagement, retention, and graduation rates among participants compared to non-participants. Retention and persistence rates among PEARLS participants reached 97% and 96.3% respectively, showcasing the model effectiveness in keeping students focused on their studies. Graduation rates saw remarkable improvements, with on-time graduation rates soaring to 4.17 times that of non-participating students. The paper presents a robust framework for an integrated support ecosystem, emphasizing scalability and replicability across diverse institutions. By addressing the challenges faced by underprivileged students during environmental crises, this framework aims to foster equity and inclusion in higher education, ensuring all students have the support they need to succeed. 

Natural disasters, such as 2017 hurricanes Irma and María, the 2020 earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, affect students in many aspects including economic, socio-emotional, and academic performance progress. To ensure that students can cope with the aftermath of such searing events, it is necessary to develop initiatives that address these three aspects. Satisfying the financial need is essential, but a long-term solution is mandatory. Hence, providing socio-emotional and academic support and cultivating a sense of purpose are critical to prevent attrition. To secure continued STEM success among students affected by natural disasters, the National Science Foundation has funded several projects at the University of Puerto Rico, a Hispanic Serving Institution. This manuscript presents four NSF-funded projects sharing the common goal of providing support to STEM students to ensure that they succeed despite the said challenges. The first project, titled Nanotechnology Center for Biomedical, Environmental and Sustainability Application, leans heavily on research teams dedicated to design new Nanotechnology platforms to address biomedical and environmental challenges and simultaneously trains a new generation of nanoengineers and nanoscientists throughout the educational echelon starting from public intermediate schools through doctoral programs. The second project, entitled Ecosystem to Expand Capabilities and Opportunities for STEM-Scholars (EECOS), developed an integrated framework that provides support to 62 low-income, talented, STEM students who were severely affected by Hurricane María and 2019-2020 earthquakes (58 undergraduate and 4 graduate). The project provided participants with financial, academic, socio-emotional, and career motivation support needed to complete their programs. The third project, Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS) addresses college access and economic hardships of Low-Income Academically Talented Students (LIATS). It aims at increasing the retention and academic success of talented engineering students coming from economically disadvantaged families. The fourth project, Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainability Education – Undergraduate Program (RISE-UP), has developed an interdisciplinary curriculum to educate cadres of Hispanic students on infrastructure resilience to temper and to overcome the effects of such natural disasters. Three campuses of this institution system collaborate in this interdisciplinary undertaking. Participating students are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, architecture, and surveying who take the entailed courses together and participate in co-curricular activities (both online and in-person through site visits). The new curricular endeavor prepares them to design infrastructure that can withstand the impact of natural events. The expect outcome is to form cohorts of graduates ready to take on real-life infrastructure failures caused by disasters and provide them with an edge in their future professions. The present work provides a range of scalable and portable strategies that universities with underrepresented minorities in STEM programs could deploy to address the immediate and continued needs of students affected by natural disasters to secure academic success. These strategies can contribute to the development of professionals with the skills and experience to deal with severe circumstances such as those effected by natural disasters as well as the preparation to solve infrastructure challenges. 

Natural disasters, such as 2017 hurricanes Irma and María, the 2020 earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, affect students in many aspects including economic, socio-emotional, and academic performance progress. To ensure that students can cope with the aftermath of such searing events, it is necessary to develop initiatives that address these three aspects. Satisfying the financial need is essential, but a long-term solution is mandatory. Hence, providing socio-emotional and academic support and cultivating a sense of purpose are critical to prevent attrition. To secure continued STEM success among students affected by natural disasters, the National Science Foundation has funded several projects at the University of Puerto Rico, a Hispanic Serving Institution. This manuscript presents four NSF-funded projects sharing the common goal of providing support to STEM students to ensure that they succeed despite the said challenges. The first project, titled Nanotechnology Center for Biomedical, Environmental and Sustainability Application, leans heavily on research teams dedicated to design new Nanotechnology platforms to address biomedical and environmental challenges and simultaneously trains a new generation of nanoengineers and nanoscientists throughout the educational echelon starting from public intermediate schools through doctoral programs. The second project, entitled Ecosystem to Expand Capabilities and Opportunities for STEM-Scholars (EECOS), developed an integrated framework that provides support to 62 low-income, talented, STEM students who were severely affected by Hurricane María and 2019-2020 earthquakes (58 undergraduate and 4 graduate). The project provided participants with financial, academic, socio-emotional, and career motivation support needed to complete their programs. The third project, Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS) addresses college access and economic hardships of Low-Income Academically Talented Students (LIATS). It aims at increasing the retention and academic success of talented engineering students coming from economically disadvantaged families. The fourth project, Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainability Education – Undergraduate Program (RISE-UP), has developed an interdisciplinary curriculum to educate cadres of Hispanic students on infrastructure resilience to temper and to overcome the effects of such natural disasters. Three campuses of this institution system collaborate in this interdisciplinary undertaking. Participating students are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, architecture, and surveying who take the entailed courses together and participate in co-curricular activities (both online and in-person through site visits). The new curricular endeavor prepares them to design infrastructure that can withstand the impact of natural events. The expect outcome is to form cohorts of graduates ready to take on real-life infrastructure failures caused by disasters and provide them with an edge in their future professions. The present work provides a range of scalable and portable strategies that universities with underrepresented minorities in STEM programs could deploy to address the immediate and continued needs of students affected by natural disasters to secure academic success. These strategies can contribute to the development of professionals with the skills and experience to deal with severe circumstances such as those effected by natural disasters as well as the preparation to solve infrastructure challenges.