GeoFORCE Texas: A Comprehensive Program to Significantly Increase Diversity in the Geosciences

GeoFORCE Texas is a summer outreach program targeting high school honor students from Houston and rural SW Texas who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM careers. Over 80% are ethnic minorities, >55% are female, and all have had limited prior exposure to geoscience. The program is sponsored by energy companies and government agencies, with instructional support from geoscientists from the University of Texas at Austin. GeoFORCE recruits students representative of the two focus regions: students from SW Texas are 85% Latino and most will be first in family to attend college; Houston students are 35% African American, 50% Latino, 8% Asian, with nearly 30 % of households at or below the poverty line. GeoFORCE activities include geological field trips (2 to 7 days long), to the Grand Canyon, Cascade Mountains, modern Florida carbonates, and USGS headquarters in Virginia. Students are recruited in 8th grade, attend their first field trip the summer before 9th grade, and participate in a different trip every summer for four years. GeoFORCE also provides an SAT prep course, workshops on college applications and financial aid forms, information on careers in geoscience and engineering, and opportunities to create personal relationships with mentors (industry sponsors, undergraduate counselors, and GeoFORCE staff). GeoFORCE is designed to engage large numbers of students with over 400 students in 2008 and over 600 projected for 2009. The goals of GeoFORCE are four-fold: 1) to expose large numbers of students to the geosciences and geoscience careers at a time when student interest in science typically wanes, 2) to promote successful completion of high school, 3) to facilitate college application and attendance, and 4) to encourage students to pursue college studies and careers in science. The program has the potential to supply quality professionals for the future workforce, and change lives during the process.