By Cheryl Reed
PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Graduate School was recently awarded $600,000 as part of a 4-year, $2.4 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and Professoriate Transformation (AGEP-T) grant to increase the number of American Indian/Alaska Native doctoral students who complete STEM graduate programs.
Titled “Collaborative Research: The Pacific Northwest Alliance to Develop, Implement, and Study a STEM Graduate Education Model for American Indians and Native Alaskans,” the grant is a strategic alliance of WSU, the University of Idaho, the University of Montana, Montana State University, Heritage University, Salish Kootenai College, and Montana Tech of the University of Montana. WSU is the lead institution with the Graduate School serving as the coordination hub for the recruitment, retention, and professional development activities.
The specific objectives of the grant are to: 1) develop a model facilitating discipline-focused, culturally relevant recruitment pathways and a culturally-congruent mutual mentoring program to support the needs of Native American STEM graduate students, 2) implement the model by developing new alliance activities, interventions, and coordination of existing activities and resources, and 3) study the effectiveness of the model through ongoing assessment.
Bill Andrefsky, dean of the Graduate School and grant PI, and Debra Sellon, director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and co-PI, will serve in an advisory capacity for the grant. Sellon was PI on a 2011-12 AGEP planning grant that showed the substantial need for a recruitment, retention, and mentoring model for underrepresented populations.
Co-PI Kelly Ward, chair of the WSU Department of Educational Leadership, Sport Studies and Educational/Counseling Psychology, will be leading a parallel social science study to advance knowledge of what influences graduate student success in STEM disciplines with a focus on how socialization is facilitated by culturally congruent approaches to mentoring. Amit Dhingra, associate professor in Horticulture and Molecular Plant Sciences, will serve as co-PI and chair of the alliance internal steering committee and coordinate the WSU recruiting and mentoring activities. Ken Lokensgard, graduate student services and research coordinator in the Plateau Center for Native American Programs, will communicate and work with the Plateau Tribes in order to involve their prospective graduate students in the AGEP grant.
“We are looking for faculty who are open to learning new ways of mentoring and approaching knowledge and its application within STEM disciplines from indigenous cultural values and world view,” said Carris.
“The NSF has provided WSU and the other alliance institutions with a challenge. Our task is to determine how best to work with Native American communities to meet this challenge. It is a really big step.”
For more information, contact Lori Carris at carris@wsu.edu or 509-335-7008.
Media contact:
Lori Carris, Associate Dean, WSU Graduate School, 509-335-7008, carris@wsu.edu