9623615 Garcia The Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO) is a regional alliance building upon the highly effective Southern Rocky Mountain AMP which is well on its way (and ahead of schedule) to completing its goal of more than doubling the number of minority SMET B.S. degrees in the region. By adding three institutions in Nevada, the WAESO alliance adds to the 35 colleges and universities, 7 professional organizations, 2 government laboratories, 4 educational organizations, 16 corporations and 147 academic and support programs of the Southern Rocky Mountain AMP. A key component to student success is SMET faculty participation which is also similarly extensive. WAESO draws on over 500 resource individuals (349 of which are SMET faculty) at 75 campuses and participating organizations. Approximately 85% are university, government laboratory or industry scientists and engineers, while 15% were administrators. Just over 40% of these resource participants are underrepresented minorities themselves. WAESO will help undergraduate students in all of the eligible SMET areas including biological/life sciences, chemistry, computer and information science, engineering, geosciences, mathematics, physics and astronomy, agricultural science, technology, and other eligible NSF fields. With NSF funds, 600 undergraduate students per year will participate in: (1) Undergraduate Summer Transition to Upperclass (for college sophomores and juniors; community college students expecting to go on to a baccalaureate); (2) Faculty-Directed Undergraduate Student Projects (for community college or four-year college students); (3) On-Site Peer Study Groups (for incoming freshman in their summer prior to matriculation, community college, or four-year college students); (4) The National Electronic Peer Group Study Network (NEPS); (5) Hypermedia Financial Aid and Academic Program Locator (for incoming students, community college, and four-year college stude nts); (6) computerized Undergraduate Preparation program for Graduate Study: Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors; (7) Curriculum Development and Reform: Summer Bridges, Undergraduate Research; and (8) Internship Programs (for community college and four-year college students). Additionally the WAESO will disseminate information on academic programs, internships, GRE test taking skills, and other important skill building workshops to another 400 undergraduate minority students per year. In all, for the 5-year period, the WAESO plans to have 5,000 undergraduate minority SMET student participating in activities and utilizing the services and advanced interactive databases produced by the alliance. Non-NSF funds will be used to serve 10,066 students at the pre-college level through Project PRIME and the navajo Higher Education demonstration Model which have shown substantive increases in the number of minority and majority students who actually graduate from high school and enter college with SMET programs.
