USING CAREER EXPERIENCES TO STRENGTHEN PATHWAYS INTO THE GEOSCIENCE WORKFORCE

The projected shortage in the U.S. geoscience workforce, the need for diversity in STEM fields, the retention of students, and the importance of job placement post-graduation reflect the need to establish best practices for promoting academic success, timely graduation, and pathways to employment. A new program funded by the NSF for Improving Undergraduate STEM education: Pathways into Geoscience (GEOPATHS) is being implemented at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). As one of the largest Hispanic and Minority-Serving Institutions in the U.S., UTSA is well positioned to improve participation of underserved students in geosciences.

The program utilizes a “medical school rotational” model in which two cohorts of junior level students will cycle through semester-long internship experiences in three of four career pathways: academia, energy resources, geo-environmental assessment, and water resources. These geoscience careers are featured prominently in South Texas, and are key sectors nationally.

To promote success in the degree and beyond, the three-year program uses a tiered set of criteria to identify 18 undergraduate participants. Instead of focusing on high-performing students, our program aims to augment the talent pool by targeting those who might be underperforming in their GPAs, but show potential to improve. From this group, a diverse set of participants will be invited to join the program. An additional 18 students will participate in the academic internship experience only. Our intent is to develop capacity for analyzing comparison groups: (1) participants in both academic and applied internships; (2) participants in the academic internship only; and (3) non-participants. Research has shown that a research experience can improve student outcomes, and our evaluation of both the single academic internship and multiple applied internships proffers a unique opportunity to determine what experiences improve student performance and job success. The program evaluation will address affective outcomes (e.g., self-confidence, motivation and familiarity with geoscience careers) and cognitive outcomes (e.g., academic performance and timely graduation). Multiple data collection efforts will build a holistic picture of challenges and best practices affecting student success.