R11-BEC: Mitigating COVID-19 Career Challenges with Research and Professional Development Training for Undergraduate Students and Mentors in Field-based Environmental Sciences

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

This Research Infrastructure Improvement Bridging EPSCoR Communities (RII BEC) project at the University of Kansas (KU) aims to serve the national interest by increasing the retention and graduation rates of undergraduate students, particularly those who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a focus on the transition from undergraduate education to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce or graduate school, a specific emphasis will be on students who have been historically underrepresented in the STEM arena.

The investigators will implement and study the effectiveness of a sustainable model on improving retention and graduation rates of STEM students. The overall program will take an integrated approach by combining authentic and meaningful research experiences, in-depth mentor training, and a professional development curriculum. Research experiences will be primarily in earth and environmental sciences.

The mentoring program will be for faculty and non-academic scientists who will be trained in cultural understanding and sensitivity as well as in effective mentoring skills and techniques directed towards preparing students to enter graduate school or the science workforce. The curriculum will be comprehensive and will include professional development topics such as: aligning expectations; the research process; communications (oral as well as writing personal essays, proposals, resumes, and cover letters); understanding and fostering work-life balance; and the art of interviewing. Project outcomes and findings will be disseminated to local, regional, and national audiences.

The underlying goals of this project are to: (1) design and implement undergraduate mentored research training experiences to help develop research skills and foster research and STEM identity for undergraduate students; (2) create a professional development program for students in their junior and senior years; (3) establish a sustainable mentor training program with cultural understanding threaded throughout; (4) develop an open-access fieldwork mentoring module which includes field safety, accessibility, and best practice responses to hostile and/or exclusionary behaviors in the field; and (5) disseminate a model resulting from project components and assessment. Project goals will be assessed using a multi-methodological approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis processes to determine the effectiveness and impact on mentors and diverse student participants.

New results will emanate from the project regarding how to combine research, mentoring, and professional development curricula to mitigate the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on students from traditionally underrepresented groups. In addition, the development and dissemination of a fieldwork mentorship training module will contribute to knowledge advancements in mentoring in the educational community.

Project findings and outcomes will be disseminated at internal and external levels through myriad venues including peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, several social media outlets, a KU Emerging STEM Scholars website, and vetted training resources developed for audiences ranging from individuals to workshops.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.