WHAT WE LEARNED FROM INTENTIONAL MENTORING OF STEM MAJORS FROM MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS

In partnership with the NAGT Traveling Workshop and the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS) at UCLA, a cohort of doctoral candidates, postdoctoral associates, and early career faculty, all trained at research intensive universities, participated in a customized Traveling Workshop on Intentional Mentoring. The workshop met two half days to prepare the cohort for intentional mentoring of students from MSIs (Minority Serving Institutes) at a summer institute on intentional mentoring and intentional science communication. After the workshop, the cohort served as mentors for students from MSIs in the eight-week summer institute in a combination of virtual and in-person mentoring, with a focus on data analysis, introduction to data analysis tools, strategies for selecting and thriving in a geoscience graduate program, and communicating science. NAGT conducted a follow up workshop midway through the institute.

Our problem statement was how can geoscience graduate programs access the talent at MSIs to meet the increased national need for geoscientists and how can current early career scientists in the geosciences be encouraged to persist in academic careers. Our theory of change was in order to have an impact on the long-term outcome of more STEM majors from MSIs entering geoscience graduate programs and more early career scientists persisting on the pathway to an academic career after earning the PhD, the following intermediate outcomes must be met. 1) Early career scientists will be attracted to and persist in research and teaching careers that provide an opportunity to mentor STEM majors from MSIs. 2) Undergraduate MSI STEM majors will gain interest in graduate programs in the geosciences by engaging with faculty and research scientists who intentionally mentor them. 3) Early career scientists will establish relationships with MSIs to recruit students as research trainees in their laboratories. 4) Early career scientist will persist and thrive in academic environments with limited networks of support via a mentoring network of researchers and teachers committed to strengthening traineeship and research opportunities for next generation geoscientists (STRONG). This panel will share what they learned about intentional mentoring of students from institutions renowned for their intentional mentoring.