The Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (MoLSAMP) includes two HBCUs, three major research institutions, a regional comprehensive university, a highly selective liberal arts university and an urban community college. The MoLSAMP Alliance will deploy a variety of activities and establish a logical cohesiveness among the individual campuses to promote recruitment, retention and graduation of underrepresented minority students with a goal to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (URM) majoring in and graduation with degrees in STEM disciplines by 125% in five years. The activities undertaken by MoLSAMP to achieve this ambitious objective will be designed to address both the cognitive and non-cognitive factors that influence success in undergraduate education. Featured activities include expansion of access to research and internships that provide experience in real world applied science, comprehensive academic advising and mentoring by dedicated faculty and administration, summer bridge programs for first and second year students and career development conferences and research symposiums designed to bring students and faculty together for informative and inspirational social gatherings. To facilitate a boundary-lite synergistic effort, articulation and reverse articulation agreements will be established to increase fluidity of academic credits between alliance institutions. A comprehensive and frequently updated MoLSAMP website will provide detailed information regarding MoLSAMP activities and related resources and serve as a conduit for student and faculty communication within and between alliance campuses. MoLSAMP supported activities will be continually evaluated to identify best practices and results will be disseminated though a variety of channels to facilitate efforts to increase URM participation and success in STEM nationwide.
The MoLSAMP Alliance currently yields 64% of the total STEM baccalaureate degrees conferred to URMs in the State of Missouri. A primary goal of MoLSAMP is to increase the recruitment, retention and successful STEM degree completion of URMs by at least 125% by the year 2021. This goal will help to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in STEM education and the workforce, and with the success of MoLSAMP supported activities, inform the broader efforts of colleges and universities nationwide to diversify the STEM student population and ultimately strengthen our nation's science based workforce. Minority students face a variety of challenges that contribute to their underrepresentation in STEM degree programs. These challenges include insufficient preparation for college level STEM coursework, financial hardship and failure to socially and culturally integrate during the first year of college. MoLSAMP scholars will receive a variety of support mechanisms to mitigate these factors, including intrusive academic advising, ample opportunity to explore applied science through research and internship opportunities, social, academic and career networking opportunities through MoLSAMP organized social gatherings, social media platforms, mentoring programs, and summer bridge programs. MoLSAMP activities will also include measures to increase successful transfer of students from St. Louis Community College to four year degree Alliance institutions, and a 25% increase in URM students entering graduate programs. Successfully and substantially increasing the number of URM students completing degrees, entering graduate programs, working in research laboratories and importantly, teaching and mentoring the next generation of URM STEM students, should provide a scaffold for a sustainable increase in diversity in STEM education and industry.
