The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM. The Southwestern Georgia STEM Pathways Alliance (SGSPA), under the leadership of Columbus State University, will implement a new five-year LSAMP STEM Pathways Implementation Only (SPIO) project that consists of two technical colleges (Columbus Technical College and South Georgia Technical College), one state college (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College) and three state universities (Columbus State University, Georgia Southwestern State University and Valdosta State University) in southwestern Georgia over the next five years.
The SGSPA has the goal of increasing traditionally underrepresented minority students that transfer from two to four year STEM degree programs, increasing graduation rates in STEM baccalaureate degree programs and increasing student entry into graduate STEM degree programs, in addition to transforming the STEM learning environment at these institutions. The project embeds an evidence-based theoretical framework, the Possible Selves Theory, at each alliance institution through initial and ongoing faculty professional development. Project evaluation, conducted by the Center for STEM Education, University of Texas, incorporates both process and outcome evaluation in formative and summative approaches. Project findings will be disseminated at local and national STEM professional conferences and through the alliance and partner institution websites.
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.
