CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-INSTITUTION FIELD-BASED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL-STEM (ESTEM) UNDERGRADUATES

With an aging geoscience workforce exhibiting a lack of ethnic diversity compared with other STEM fields, the geoscience community must develop new models of mentorship for pre-career personnel. New initiatives have been designed to aid in the recruitment, retention, skills development, and awareness of career opportunities for students at 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities. Programs with strong field and career training components will prepare undergraduates for entry-level geoscience positions as well as potentially enhance the diversity of the geoscience workforce and the retention of students in STEM fields. We report on the goals, structure, curricular elements, and assessment and evaluation plan of an NSF GEOPATH Extra program: Field based professional development for ESTEM (Environmental-STEM) undergraduates, a collaboration between University of San Francisco, a comprehensive university; College of the Atlantic, a liberal arts college; and Mt. San Antonio College, a community college. This program aims to create a professional development experience, specifically aimed at undergraduate students of environmental geoscience tracks that will facilitate transition into the workforce. Aligned with key career skills and content knowledge identified by stakeholders (ESTEM professionals), we developed a series of badges that students may earn and use to document their abilities for prospective employers. Students from the different institutions will together participate in a summer field course set in the Sierra Nevada region of CA, where they will complete interdisciplinary, field-based modules with components of hydrology, geology, geomorphology, and ecology and interface with professionals from the National Park Service, Southern Sierras Critical Zone Observatory, and others. Returning to their home institutions, students will participate in a career seminar led by faculty PIs and local ESTEM professionals. In partnership with the Science Education Resource Center, formative and summative assessments will be administered to assess program components and alignment to the project goals. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities in planning a multi-institution professional development program and potential for adoption of similar programs by other institutions.