The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in their efforts to significantly increase the numbers of students matriculating into and successfully completing high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to diversify the STEM workforce. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming undergraduate STEM education through innovative, evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies, and relevant educational experiences in support of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. These strategies facilitate the production of well-prepared students highly-qualified and motivated to pursue graduate education or careers in STEM.
For the United States (U.S.) to remain globally competitive, it is vital that it taps into the talent of all its citizens and provides exceptional educational preparedness in STEM areas that underpin the knowledge-based economy. Allan Hancock College (AHC), Cuesta College (CC) and Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) - the three community colleges that serve Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties - will collaborate in a pre-alliance planning project (C6: California Central Coast Community College Collaborative) to develop a full Bridge to the Baccalaureate (B2B) LSAMP Alliance proposal. The planning project will 1) convene faculty, staff and administrators from the colleges to share challenges and best practices, as well as goals to support URM student success; 2) analyze institutional retention and success data to identify equity gaps and bottleneck courses; 3) conduct student surveys and focus groups to drill down into specific obstacles and challenges faced by underrepresented minority students; 4) perform literature reviews to learn best practices; and 5) visit an existing B2B LSAMP project, and California State University and University of California LSAMP sites. To generate a successful and sustainable full proposal, the core team of AHC, CC and SBCC will consolidate data and information from these various inputs. The full alliance intends to provide common but flexible support programs that allow member colleges to work together in increasing the quantity and quality of transfer-ready URM STEM students. Thus, the fundamental goal of C6 is to ensure a sufficient pool of prepared STEM students that reflects the diverse nature of our population as well as diversification of the STEM workforce.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
