The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM.
The Puget Sound Alliance (PSAlliance) project will establish a partnership between three community colleges in the western part of Washington State, namely North Seattle College, Olympic College and Pierce College, to create a long-term plan to increase STEM degrees for traditionally underrepresented minority students. The outcome of the 18-month planning activity is submission of a full proposal for LSAMP Bridge-to-the-Baccalaureate (B2B)funding to further support community college student success and transfer to four-year STEM programs.
North Seattle College will leverage knowledge generated in prior NSF funded projects to bring expertise to the design and implementation of a range of high impact practices that will serve to transform PSAlliance STEM programs. Early Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs) will be a central theme, as well as the design of innovative recruitment and retention strategies. The planning project will increase knowledge about what is known about how early research experiences and supplemental supports impact student STEM identity, persistence and engagement in underrepresented student populations. Project outcomes will be disseminated locally and nationally through conferences and on-line STEM education journals. Findings from the planning project will benefit educational institutions and the STEM community nationally in broadening participation efforts.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
