As an AGEP program participant since 1998, the University of Michigan (UM) proposes to build upon its successes and achievements by forming the Michigan AGEP Alliance (MAA). Our partnership will comprise four leading Ph.D. granting institutions in the State of Michigan, all of which have long- standing traditions of academic excellence in doctoral education and research in science and engineering (STEM) disciplines, as well as a firm commitment to achieving diversity in higher education. The MAA will feature the UM as the lead school, and include Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University as primary partners. The UM will share the many successes of its previous AGEP activities with the new partner schools and, in turn, learn from the different experiences and insights that each partner brings to the Alliance. The institutionalization successfully carried out at the UM with AGEP funding, as well as the considerable achievements of our partner institutions, will provide a solid foundation on which to develop new avenues of programming for the proposed MAA. Our Alliance will be a full partnership of the four institutions, built upon our collective wisdom, the sharing of best practices, and the assessment of outcomes and use of this knowledge to implement continuous improvement. Through the development of joint programs and ventures, the MAA will achieve (1) sustained, organized cooperation between MAA institutions; (2) increased efficiency by aligning the resources and operations of MAA partners; and (3) increased opportunities for under-represented students. The primary objectives of the proposed AGEP program are: To sustain and expand upon gains made in the recruitment of under-represented students in the STEM fields, by sharing lessons of UM successes with alliance institutions and by adapting successful programs from the alliance to UM.s institutional culture. To develop and implement new initiatives to expand the student pipeline, to retain and graduate enrolled students, and to prepare students effectively for entering careers in academia. To ensure that students are prepared to become leaders and innovators in the academic world. To ensure long-term sustainability of gains made by institutionalizing successes. The proposed AGEP program will be centered on a set of programmatic activities that include: Recruiting and outreach: recruiting fairs and outreach, coordinated summer research programs, coordinated visits of students to partner campus, outreach to potential students in industry. Retention: alleviating financial concerns, identifying and finding solutions for academic concerns, responding to social concerns, strengthening mentoring, improving programs that prepare students for entering graduate programs. Development of student leadership and innovation in STEM fields. Teaching preparation and career development: encouragement of academic careers. Intellectual Merit- Collectively the MAA partners have extensive experience in analyzing data, and we propose to develop an evaluation model that will enable us to capitalize on our success and remedy difficulties in a timely fashion. With this model we will measure and analyze in depth outcomes between different student groups, partner institutions, and other AGEP alliances. We will disseminate the knowledge gained in a variety of ways, including meetings, presentations, reports and journal publications. We intend to create an approach to evaluation that may be adopted in other AGEP alliances, producing a wider comparison of effort and success and perhaps setting the groundwork for a national analysis standard in graduate education. Broader Impact- Our efforts will lead to an increased number of under-represented students successfully completing a Ph.D., and entering academia. However, the aim of our AGEP program is not simply to increase numbers, but rather to provide an educational experience, adoptable by other graduate programs, that will enable our under-represented students to become part of the next generation of leaders and innovators in STEM fields. We will develop a series of programs that will help develop the skills and attitude students need to become creative researchers, educators and leaders, who will be ready to contribute to the knowledge, technology, security and quality of life of the nation.
(MAA) is a partnership of University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, and Michigan Technological University. MAA created a community that supported the academic success of students from underrepresented minority (URM) groups who were earning doctoral degrees in engineering, physical science, life science, mathematics, and social and behavioral sciences and helped prepare them to pursue careers in academia. The specific objectives of the MAA were to: 1) Develop and implement innovative models for recruiting, mentoring, and retaining minority students in doctoral programs; and 2) Increase the number of minority graduates who would enter the professoriate in both the STEM and SBE disciplines. Our member institutions operated both individually and collectively to provide a wide spectrum of programs. At each university, we offered academic workshops, mentoring programs, and opportunities to participate in professional research communities. As an alliance we hosted annual conferences for AGEP students at our universities that focused on each stage of development in the graduate experience to enhance students’ competitiveness within the academic marketplace. One key outcome of this grant was the establishment of interdisciplinary learning communities. These communities brought students together to share their research regularly throughout the academic year. The impact of these learning communities was multifaceted. First, the communities provided a space for students to gather outside of their departments and labs, offering brief but critical social opportunities. This helped facilitate a safe academic environment of peers to which students could present their research and receive rigorous, constructive feedback. Third, the students, working in an interdisciplinary environment, gained new insights into their work, and group discussions generated new approaches to their work. Lastly, students developed their own sub-groups of peer support networks across departments/fields to seek support from throughout their academic process (e.g. milestones, publishing, presenting, dissertation). Furthermore, these communities served as a key component in our AGEP student retention, because they connected students to a community of scholars who shared similar backgrounds and life experiences. Another key outcome was the adoption of a deliberate strategy to promote effective mentoring relationships between AGEP faculty and students through interventions designed by the Mentoring Others Results in Excellence Committee (MORE). MORE is a faculty group created to synthesize best practices in graduate student mentoring from the literature with proven experiences of excellent mentors drawn from the STEM and SBE fields. As part of this project, MORE developed a mentoring workshop, which brought AGEP faculty and their students together for peer discussions of mentoring best practices. These workshops included a structured opportunity for AGEP faculty and student dyads to produce a mentoring plan agreement to guide the development of the AGEP doctoral student. The Michigan AGEP Alliance is proud of its role in national efforts to identify through research the major factors that promote the successful transition of minority students from undergraduate to graduate study, from course-taking to independent research, and from completion of a dissertation to success in the workplace. The MAA has been dedicated to combining resources for graduate education into an effective collaboration that has produced for our nation, the next generation of innovators and leaders in both research and teaching.
