This award funds a graduate student mentoring program that is part of the Economics Pipeline Program, which works to broaden participation in the economics profession. The mentoring program helps students from under represented groups navigate a number of critical stages in their development as scientists as they go from the early stages of graduate study through completing dissertation research and starting their first post doctoral position.
Students meet regularly with their program mentors at a variety of professional conferences around the country. An annual workshop brings all participants together for research presentations; this workshop is held in conjunction with a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site aimed at undergraduate students who are interested in careers in social and economic science. The graduate students therefore both benefit from working with their own mentors and are able to serve as mentors in turn to younger students.
The American Economic Association (AEA) Mentoring Program seeks to increase the production of scholars from underrepresented minority groups within the economics profession. The target groups include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and some Asian American groups, for example, Filipino Americans. The Mentoring Program had 50 graduate student participants during 2014. All participants are permanent residents or US citizens. Six students received their doctoral degrees during 2014. All active participants, many former participants, all mentors, and many former mentors are members of the Mentoring Program Listserv. Most mentees self-select into the program. Information on the mentoring program is disseminated through current and past program mentees and mentors, announcements on the National Economic Association Listserv (NEA-L) and the American Society of Hispanic Economists Listserv (ASHE-L), announcements during the AEA Summer Program, and announcements through the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE). Mentors are both self-selected and requested to volunteer. Among the 2014 and other recent year participants of the Mentoring Program, 30 participants have become professors, researchers, or post-doctoral fellows. A highlight of the NSF-funded Mentoring Program is the summer conference. It is the key vehicle for introducing AEA Summer Training Program participants to the Mentoring Program, providing a venue for graduate student presentations, professional development seminars, and networking for graduate students, professional organizations, e.g., The Fed and NBER, newly minted Ph.Ds, and mentors. The 2012-2014 research conferences were held at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. All of the AEA Summer Program students attended the conference. The AEA Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession sponsors a dissertation panel at the annual Allied Social Sciences Association meetings. For the 2011 – 2013 panels, mentoring program participants represented exactly ½ of the presenters, specifically, 6 of 12 panelists for the three-year period. The Mentoring program also provides a modest amount of funds to assist with collaborative research between graduate students and mentors, to assist graduate students with data purchases, to support professional conference attendance and participation by graduate students, and other similar activities that aide the professional development of graduate students. A few graduate students exit the pipeline prior to completion of a doctorate degree, but the improved information and advice provided by the Mentoring Program helps reduce the numbers who leave economics programs because of a lack of information and support. Moreover, many of those students who decide not to pursue a Ph.D in economics go on to complete a JD, MBA, or Ph.D. in other fields where minorities are similarly underrepresented. Mentors do not have to be members of an underrepresent minority. Mentors are linked to students on the basis of the following criteria: (1) genuine interest in devoting time and energy to supporting a minority economist; (2) geographic proximity to the student; (3) similar research interest (if requested by student); and (4) similar background so as to relate to the student. For participants in their first year of graduate study, mentors provide advice on the academic process, suggest strategies to prepare for comprehensive and field exams, remind students of the "joys" of economics that await on the other side of the core examination, and help identify summer research opportunities. Once the comprehensive and field exams have been completed, a key role for mentors is to talk to the student about their research interests and to assist the student in developing relationships with faculty who might serve on a thesis committee. Mentors, graduate students and junior faculty participate in the annual pipeline project conference. Mentoring Program participant fields of interests vary widely. The most popular fields are labor, macroeconomics, international, public finance, and development. Participants have also expressed interest in urban, health and economic history. The Mentoring Program collaborates with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank, Mathematical Policy Research, the National Poverty Center, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and other public, private, and governmental agencies to offer expanded programming and opportunities to the Summer Economics Fellows Program. The purpose of the fellowship is to allow the fellows to spend a summer in residence at these sponsoring research institutions.
