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The AGEP New York PUI Alliance project experienced considerable change and transition to its leadership team across all levels, and at all Alliance institutions, including the death of the Alliance Principal Investigator. The ongoing nature of these changes has placed the Alliance in a constant state of transition as the team, model, project, interventions and dissemination plans adapt to new team members and new, remote methods of engagement. During its first three years, the speed and frequency of unanticipated change experienced by the AGEP New York PUI Alliance presented an opportunity for the project team to look at the team itself as a model component to be studied. Understanding how the team, and specific team members have coped with and adapted to unexpected change is providing greater insight into what can best support team cohesiveness, sense of commitment to a project and enthusiasm for the work. This reflection piece aims to present the personal perspectives of five team members: two Principal Investigators, one Co-Principal Investigator, and two program managers. The narrative presents an opportunity to discuss the importance of building strong team relationships and cohesiveness to ensure project advancement during periods of change and transition. 

The authors discuss efforts at New York’s Suffolk County Community College to engage minority and nontraditional students in STEM research and presentation opportunities. Using mixed methods and quantitative descriptive analysis, their research examines the impact of extended research experiences on the students’ academic and career paths. The 182 students in the NSF S-STEM cohorts from 2007 to 2016 had dramatically higher retention and graduation rates as well as GPAs when compared to their STEM peers not enrolled in the NSF S-STEM program. Findings indicate that community college student researchers perform better academically than their peers who chose a more traditional path and that success in STEM encourages increased college persistence. Keywords: community colleges, minority student retention, partnerships, STEM, undergraduate research http://www.cur.org/publications/curq_on_the_web/