PROMISE Pathways PLANNING PROJECT

Academic Level:

Description: PROMISE, the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) in Maryland, proposes a new, expanded alliance, titled the PROMISE Pathways Project, that seeks to expand upon successes from two prior AGEP projects by partnering with additional institutions to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority students (URMs) who will pursue graduate degrees in STEM fields, increase the retention of URM graduate students in STEM, facilitate more postdoctoral opportunities for participants, prepare graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for the professoriate, and facilitate applications and opportunities for academic careers at a variety of institutions. Formed in 2002 and led by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), PROMISE is a multi-institution consortium that includes UMBC, the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). This proposed PROMISE Pathways project explores and develops the infrastructure needed to expand the current alliance to include potentially all of the universities within the University System of Maryland, four Maryland-based community colleges, and a former NSF Model Institution of Excellence (MIE) Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in Puerto Rico. The new members of PROMISE Pathways will build upon the recruitment and retention successes that UMBC, UMCP, and UMB made with previous AGEP funding to move their respective undergraduate students to graduate programs at doctoral granting public research universities in Maryland, build relationships among faculty, and provide advanced graduate students and postdocs with mentored teaching and training opportunities so that they can be equipped to be the next generation of STEM professors.

The plan for the new PROMISE Pathways project has four major components:

1. Creating an expanded pipeline of underrepresented students from Maryland?s institutions who will pursue doctoral degrees.

2. Developing a stronger network of STEM faculty within the State of Maryland who will facilitate research collaborations that will involve underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students, and foster a stronger sense of mentoring underrepresented students in STEM throughout the state.

3. Providing Maryland?s underrepresented STEM doctoral students with programs that facilitate collegial academic networks, professional development, and degree completion.

4. Offering advanced graduate students and postdocs interactive workshops that will train them for the professoriate along with hands-on, mentored teaching experiences at a wide range of institutions, including research institutions, Predominately White Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Community Colleges.

Intellectual Merit: The PROMISE Pathways project will facilitate wider academic networks for research collaboration. It will also advance and inform the field of graduate education and the sub-disciplines of broadening participation in STEM and psychological sense of community for retention of URMs in STEM. The project will explore creative writing conferences (e.g. application/proposal/dissertation/portfolio house) to coach students through document preparation. The project will also develop a suite of mentored teaching opportunities to facilitate preparation for the professoriate. Both of these examples are potentially transformative with respect to developing a new generation of diverse professors. The concepts are based on 7 years of successful projects at smaller levels and are being considered for expansion. The campuses have the resources, facilities, and administrative support to develop the activities in this Pathways proposal.

Broader Impacts: This Pathways project advances discovery and understanding of retention, pedagogy, and factors of influence for pursuing the professoriate. It promotes teaching, training, and learning through peer mentoring, mentored teaching experiences by faculty, and training/coaching methods that will prepare participants for each milestone in their careers. This project broadens the participation of underrepresented groups by specifically focusing on advancing underrepresented minorities in STEM toward the professoriate. The project also attends to participants with visible and invisible disabilities. This project will enhance the distance learning infrastructure for professional development activities between partner campuses. Results will be disseminated widely through conference proceedings, journal submissions, and particularly through the PROMISE network of blogs and websites. The expanded impact to society will include an understanding of methods and models that can facilitate URM STEM retention and transition to the professoriate. The project seeks to be a model that can be replicated for other institutions, alliances, and university systems in the U.S.



Participating Institution(s):
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Program Materials:



This Program is funded by:
National Science Foundation (NSF)


Page last updated 7/22/2011
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