Rice University leads a collaborative proposal to extend the impact of the Empowering Leadership: Computing Scholars of Tomorrow Alliance (ELA) through partnerships with new institutions and regional collaboratives that will adopt and expand ELA's successful models of engagement. The goal of ELA is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who major in computing at the nation's research universities. Additionally, ELA supports these students in securing positions in computing following graduation. The premise of the ELA is that minority students at research universities face challenges that can be mitigated by a supportive community that provides academic, social, and personal support. National in scope, the ELA is developing a network of computing faculty and leaders dedicated to providing this support. In addition to Rice University, ELA originally included Boston University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas, Austin. With this proposal, the ELA will add the University of Georgia, Clemson University, Tufts University, and Stony Brook University as new lead institutions, along with several new partners including MentorNet, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and the New England Computer Science Chairs (NECSC). The ELA uses three intersecting models of engagement, including the National, Regional and Local Models. The National Model seeks out and supports individuals across the country, building a virtual (and sometimes in-person) network; the Regional Model builds a support network among multiple universities within a region; and the Local Model builds a local support community within a single university. These three models serve to connect ELA students with each other and with tailored opportunities including internships, mentoring, conference participation, and summer research programs. The proposed extension will strengthen the three models at their current sites and test their scalability and transfer to the new lead institutions. It will also add programs developed under BPC demonstration projects to the suite of ELA offerings and test their scalability.
The Empowering Leadership: Computing Scholars of Tomorrow Alliance (ELA) (empoweringleadership.org) is one of the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances (BPC-A). The BPC-A were established between 2006 and 2009 to increase the number and diversity of college graduates in the computing and computationally-intensive disciplines. The Alliances are national and regional collaborations of academic institutions, educators, professional societies, community organizations, and industrial partners. They create the best practices, educational resources, advocacy networks, and forums needed to transform computing education. In aggregate, the BPC Alliances broadly address issues of engagement and education across the K-20 academic pipeline. They are specifically charged with addressing the long standing underrepresentation of many groups within the computing community, but many, if not most, BPC-A activities increase awareness, access, engagement, and inclusion for all students. By building supportive communities, the ELA increases the number of students that receive undergraduate and graduate degrees from groups with long-standing underrepresentation in computing disciplines at the nation’s research universities. To enable communities in diverse settings, ELA uses three different working models: Local Model - Where a sufficient critical mass of underrepresented students exists at a university, local ELA support chapters are formed that nurture in-person relationships with on-campus faculty, staff, and peers. Currently, student chapters and support groups are located at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Indiana, Rice University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Clemson University, with others being created as universities learn of the opportunities. Of the ELA Rice students who participated in the 2010 end of year survey, 95% agreed strongly/agreed that ELA increased their dedication to complete their degree in computing fields. A quote by an undergraduate member highlights the support that the ELA community provides: "ELA is just what students need to assure them that they CAN do it and they are not alone in their struggles!" At UC Berkeley we have also focused on the increase of women faculty and we have succeeded to increase over the last 2 years by 3%. This is significant since we are building critical mass of women faculty which in turn enhances the environment for women graduate students in the department. The women graduate students association is very active, both locally and also participating in Tapia and Anita Borg Conferences. Regional Model – Critical mass for support communities is built across multi-universities in a geographic region. The ELA catalyzed the formation of the New England Computer Science Department Chairs organization, which successfully launched the annual New England Undergraduate Computing Symposium (NEUSC) held annually beginning in 2009 and described at www.neucs.org. A typical response to the question, what was your favorite part of the meeting is, "Seeing what other students in the area are doing. It's really inspiring!" Currently, efforts to replicate this regional model in the Midwest has been initiated by the ELA Big Ten and Midwest Consortium, a group of faculty, staff and students located at Midwest universities. National Model – Seeking out and supporting individuals across the country through virtual and in-person experiences, a national network allows any individual student, faculty member, or computing professional to become connected to others as a part of the ELA. Close to 1000 students have joined the Alliance from 220 different universities. Approximately 300 students have participated in online ELA webinars or teleconferences, and a repository of recorded webinars is available at http://empoweringleadership.rice.edu/spotlights/. ELA has also funded over 400 students to attend professional conferences where students gain in-person connections, including the Tapia Celebration of Diversity Conferences, SC conferences, Grace Hopper, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, National Society of Black Engineers. To further undergraduate interest in graduate studies, ELA has acted as broker between undergraduate research opportunities and students. ELA partners have been able to support about 80 students in summer-long and academic year research experiences. In addition to designing programs that impact students individually and are tailored to their interests, the EL Alliance leadership participates at a national level to bring attention to the many factors impacting student achievement, and the best practices that are being used to ensure success. University faculty members of the ELA Leadership Team are recognized leaders locally, regionally, and nationally on matters of representation and play a key role in guiding university faculty and administration and public policymakers. To summarize, ELA is centered around students, providing them a national network of support and tools to help them travel through the often fragile pathway that leads through college and graduate school so that our nation can benefit from these future leaders in computing.
