THE BESST PROGRAM: A NEW CURRICULUM TO PROVIDE HIGH QUALITY RESEARCH EXPERIENCES AND PROGRAMMATIC DEVELOPMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES PAIRED WITH ENHANCED MENTOR TRAINING FOR FACULTY

Building Emerging STEM Scholars of Tomorrow (BESST) is an NSF EPSCoR funded program at the University of Kansas that is designed to combat the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on undergraduate students' experiences, especially for students who identify with groups that are underrepresented in STEM. These negative impacts include limiting access to research opportunities, constraining professional networks, reducing preparedness to be competitive for graduate school, and reducing experience for undergraduates seeking to directly enter the workforce after graduation. To promote success before and after graduation, students need access to networks and resources that build career readiness and transparency around the hidden curriculum to enter graduate school. They also benefit significantly from enhanced research experiences with mentors, however the benefits of this experience depend greatly on the quality of their interactions with their mentor. Our program aims to combat these challenges by providing professional development for both students and mentors that are centered around building positive research experiences.

The BESST program was initially established in fall of 2022 and the first year focused on building the undergraduate professional development curriculum and the recruitment and training of our first cohort of mentors and students for the 23-24 academic year. A total of 13 faculty and staff have already completed the mentor training provided by BESST leadership and 8 students have already been accepted into the program's first student cohort. This presentation will outline the different programmatic elements of BESST, including student curriculum development, mentor training development and developing a mentor community of practice, and assessment plans for the project.