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UCR-SEED                                                                  Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


                                           NARRATIVE

PROJECT GOALS

        A recent report1 from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) argues that, although U.S.

graduate education remains the envy of the world, there is a “leaky pipeline” from undergraduate

institutions to graduate institutions and into sectors of the economy that demand a highly-skilled

workforce. A disproportionate amount of this leakage is comprised of under-represented groups

whose untapped talent represents foregone leadership, creativity, expertise, and contributions to

societal advancement. The report advocates greater attention to the participation and success of

these under-represented groups in graduate education because they constitute such a large and

underutilized resource.

        Underutilization of this talent pool also results in persistent socio-economic disparities in

American society. As of 2007, 52% of Asian/Pacific Islanders, 29.1% of whites, 18.5% of

African Americans, and 12.7% of Hispanics had college degrees or higher2. Not surprisingly,

this lower level of educational attainment among African Americans and Hispanics correlates

with lower earning power and under-representation within professional careers. For example,

the mean Hispanic household income is 76% of that of the mean national household income3;

only 19% of Hispanics are employed in professional or managerial jobs compared to 38% of the

population as a whole4. Indeed, Hispanics, who constitute approximately 15.4% of the US

population5, represent only 5.8% of Master degree recipients6 and 3.4% of doctoral degree

recipients7 nationwide.




University of California Riverside        Narrative-1                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


        Graduate education therefore is an avenue that can effectively advance our common well-

being while also addressing social disparities within American society. However, currently there

is very limited consensus on how to most effectively promote successful attainment of advanced

degrees by under-represented groups. A recent survey8 of graduate schools conducted by Poock

(2007) finds that while over three-fourths of respondents engage in recruitment activities focused

on under-represented groups, only one-third engages in retention activities. Furthermore, nearly

all of these retention activities -- peer and faculty mentoring, professional development

opportunities, campus visits and receptions -- generally are perceived by respondents to be

ineffective, even though at least one previous study of African-American doctoral students9 finds

that “positive relationships with faculty, increased peer interaction, and assistance with

adjustment issues” (p.232) are valued by students. Poock (2007) concludes that there remain

obvious needs for research and implementation of effective means to promote the success of

under-represented groups in graduate education.

        The goals of this project are to address these needs by using innovative means to

encourage socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged (SEED) students to consider

graduate school as an attractive and accessible path towards a professional career and to assist

SEED students at the University of California at Riverside (UCR) in advancing to candidacy in a

timely manner, successfully completing their advanced degrees, and obtaining academic or other

professional appointments. UCR, whose undergraduate population ranks among the most

diverse in the nation, and which is designated as an Hispanic Serving Institution, is also

committed to diversity at the graduate level. In accordance with California Proposition 209,


University of California Riverside       Narrative-2                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                  Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


which prohibits discriminating against or granting “preferential treatment to, any individual or

group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin,” the university defines

diversity broadly. Thus, we are attentive to the potential of those students whose backgrounds

exhibit socio-economic need, who have faced educational challenges, such as limited access to

educational resources, and/or are from the first generation in their families to achieve a college

degree (i.e., SEED students). Under-represented minority students --African-Americans,

Hispanics, and Native Americans--constitute, on average, approximately 15% of our domestic

graduate student enrollment in each of the past four years. It has been our experience that the

majority of SEED students also are members of these under-represented groups. By expanding

our efforts to make graduate education a viable option for students from diverse backgrounds, we

will address an important issue currently bedeviling higher education in the United States:

namely, how to increase the diversity of those who choose to pursue graduate degrees, and

ultimately how to increase the diversity of our skilled workforce and the professoriate. We

anticipate that implementation of the proposed innovative programs will benefit all students who

participate by providing them with tools they need to succeed in graduate school and by giving

them career development guidance so that, upon graduation, they are likely to seek, obtain, and

succeed in faculty and other professional appointments.

PROPOSED PROGRAMS

        We propose to undertake innovative new efforts in four major areas to increase the

number of SEED students pursuing advanced degrees as well as the retention and successful

career development of these students.


University of California Riverside        Narrative-3                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                  Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


    1. Enhanced exposure of undergraduate SEED students to graduate education
       opportunities.

        Traditional retention efforts begin only after students arrive on campus, even though

cultivation of graduate school success by SEED students should begin well before they

matriculate into a graduate program. Students who demonstrate the potential and desire to

pursue advanced degrees should be identified as undergraduates and educated about applying to

and attending graduate school. By developing partnerships between area CSU undergraduate

programs and graduate programs at UCR, we anticipate that we can encourage more SEED

students to enter doctoral programs at UCR and elsewhere. Given the large number of Hispanic

students educated in the CSU system, we expect this aspect of our program to have particular

impact upon that group of potential graduate students. The CSU system educates almost twice as

many undergraduates10 as does the UC system11, and a high proportion of the CSU student body

is Hispanic. For example, Hispanics constitute 42.3% of the student population at CSU Los

Angeles and 34% of that of CSU San Bernardino12, the CSU in closest proximity to UCR. With

few exceptions (primarily for Ed.D. degrees), the CSUs do not offer doctoral degrees, and

therefore CSU students must go elsewhere if they are to earn doctorates. Students who have not

considered pursuing a doctoral degree might do so if they learn about and are encouraged to

apply to doctoral programs and if they better understand how graduate studies are funded.

        As part of our education and outreach, we will invite groups of CSU undergraduates to

visit UCR to learn about specific graduate programs and possible career paths, to become aware

of the financial aid that is available to graduate students, to meet with and talk to our current



University of California Riverside        Narrative-4                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


graduate students about their studies and what life is like as a graduate student, and to meet with

faculty to learn about ongoing research projects. We will also inform students from our

partnership CSUs who are in their sophomore or junior years about our summer research

program which is designed to engage students in research and prepare them to apply to graduate

school. We will encourage each CSU student whom we meet through these partnership

programs to apply to graduate schools, and for those who apply to UCR, we will assist them by

guiding them through the application process. We expect that direct interactions with these

students will result in CSU students applying and gaining admission to more graduate programs.

        We have made a number of preliminary contacts with CSU faculty who direct programs

that primarily benefit SEED students, have queried them as to their interest in forging such ties

between our campuses, and have received very positive responses (see email correspondence in

Appendix). As one example, Professor Margaret Jefferson, who directs the Louis Stokes

Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program at CSU Los Angeles, has indicated

interest in forging ties with us. The NSF-sponsored LSAMP program “… is aimed at increasing

the quality and quantity of students successfully completing science, technology, engineering

and mathematics (STEM) baccalaureate degree programs, and increasing the number of students

interested in, academically qualified for and matriculated into programs of graduate study.

LSAMP supports sustained and comprehensive approaches that facilitate achievement of the

long-term goal of increasing the number of students who earn doctorates in STEM fields,

particularly those from populations underrepresented in STEM fields. The program goals are

accomplished through the formation of alliances”.13 We will facilitate formation of such an


University of California Riverside       Narrative-5                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


alliance between graduate programs in the STEM fields at UCR and the LSAMP Program at

CSU Los Angeles. We will formalize similar partnerships between specific graduate programs

at UCR and various programs within all interested area CSUs. In addition to inviting students to

visit UCR, we will encourage faculty from UCR to form research partnerships with CSU faculty

and their students. Such partnerships should allow us to reach a large group of students, who

might only come to consider themselves graduate school material as a result of direct interaction

with us.

    2. Enriched orientation for students who enter UCR graduate programs from our
       CSU partnerships.

        Typical orientation sessions for new graduate students are very brief and impersonal --

ours takes place in a large lecture hall and lasts one afternoon. Therefore we will initiate an

enriched orientation program to ensure that SEED students have a smooth entrance into graduate

school. Students from our CSU partnerships who are admitted to UCR for graduate school and

elect to come here, as well as all other SEED students matriculating into our participating

graduate programs, will be invited to come to campus two weeks prior to the beginning of the

academic year, where they will undergo a more extensive orientation than will other newly

admitted students. We will provide the students who come for the two-week orientation with

workshops and seminars on various topics designed to help students acclimate to and understand

the expectations of graduate school. Topics will include balancing school and personal life,

balancing classes, research and teaching, choosing a faculty adviser, preparing applications for

outside funding, becoming effective teaching assistants, and understanding what the ethical



University of California Riverside       Narrative-6                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


conduct of research entails. We will involve our current graduate students from disadvantaged

backgrounds as leaders for discussions with these students about the challenges presented by

being from a socio-economically or educationally disadvantaged background. We will introduce

these students to campus support groups and have them participate in team building exercises so

they get to know one another and create their own support systems. We anticipate that students

who participate in this enriched orientation program will be less likely to drop out of graduate

school and will be less likely to encounter academic difficulties than will students who do not

participate.

    3. Program-specific group mentoring with faculty-student mentor teams.

        It is not sufficient simply to increase the number of SEED students seeking advanced

degrees; these students must successfully complete their degrees if their entry into graduate

school is to materialize into successful professional careers. Of our current SEED students, a

large portion is Hispanic, so data on that group provide some insight into the issues surrounding

retention. An analysis of the retention rate for domestic students who entered UCR PhD

programs between the years 1998 and 2003, most of whom would have now completed their

PhDs, reveals that 50% of Hispanic students did not complete their programs and dropped out of

graduate school. These numbers are comparable to the retention rates for non-Hispanic students

at UCR. However, of the Hispanic students who did not complete their degrees, a preponderance

withdrew before advancing to candidacy (i.e., completing their course work and passing their

qualifying examinations), while non-Hispanics who failed to achieve their degree objectives

tended to withdraw after successfully completing their coursework and exams. Along with


University of California Riverside       Narrative-7                  U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                              FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


severely damaging their professional prospects both inside and outside of academia, this practice

among Hispanic graduate students also indicates that a large number of these promising students

are not being acculturated to academia and the demands of graduate school, and thus not only are

failing to complete their Ph.D. but also are not succeeding in their early years in their graduate

programs when the groundwork for strong academic careers is established. An attrition rate of

50% represents enormous lost potential and wasted effort and resources, both on the part of the

student and the university. Effective programs to increase retention should have broad positive

repercussions on our campus. We will focus new retention programs on these SEED students,

and, if these retention efforts are successful, we will adopt them as the means to help increase

retention of graduate students in all programs on campus.

        As mentioned previously, recent research suggests that traditional one-on-one peer and

faculty mentoring are perceived to be ineffective methods for student retention, despite the

evidence that students appear to appreciate acculturation efforts. We believe that the perception

of ineffectiveness is largely due to two factors that tend to undermine the overall quality of

mentoring activities: (1) not everyone is a good mentor, yet many people must serve as mentors

under the traditional one-on-one model; (2) mentoring tends to be unstructured, unsupervised,

and unrewarded. Therefore, we will utilize group mentoring with faculty-student mentor teams

consisting of one faculty member and two current graduate students or post-doctoral fellows in

each of our participating programs, with training, structure, content, and oversight provided by

the Graduate Division. Both faculty and student mentors will be compensated for their time and

must demonstrate experience with, interest in, and compassion toward issues faced by incoming


University of California Riverside       Narrative-8                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                   Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


SEED students before being appointed as a mentor. Mentoring teams will meet regularly and

will be required to cover a basic syllabus provided by the Graduate Division, as well as to

allocate time for additional topics of particular relevance to their individual programs.

        Mentoring will not only benefit students early in their graduate careers but will also

benefit the student mentor who will be called upon to articulate why s/he is in graduate school

and how s/he managed to survive courses, qualifying exams, advancement to candidacy, and

periods in which research seemingly encountered dead-ends. Faculty and student mentors also

will be asked to conduct mock exams for students approaching their qualifying exams so that the

students gain experience answering questions and thinking on their feet, and the student mentors

gain experience relevant to their future careers. To further enhance a sense of community across

student cohorts, the Graduate Division will host a monthly “Get Connected” lunch where we will

have ongoing discussions on topics of particular concern to all graduate students.

    4. Programs to enhance professional and career development of SEED students.

        Efforts to increase the number of SEED students who receive their PhDs must be

accompanied by effective professional and career development activities so that, upon

graduation, these students will successfully apply and compete for academic and other

professional positions. As of 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, 3.1% of

full-time faculty who held the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor at

degree granting institutions were Hispanic and 5% were African-American14. If these

percentages are to rise, PhD recipients from these and other under-represented groups must

understand what faculty and other professional careers entail.


University of California Riverside       Narrative-9                     U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                 FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


        As with traditional mentoring efforts, Poock (2007) finds that traditional professional

development efforts also are perceived by graduate schools to be ineffective retention tools. Our

own experience supports this notion and therefore we have been engaged in the design of a new

approach for delivering this content which we call Grad-PREP (Graduate Professional Education

and Placement). Grad-PREP is envisioned as a campus-wide initiative, coordinated through the

Graduate Division, on graduate student professional development and successful career

placement. Importantly Grad-PREP is not a series of courses or workshops offered by a

singularly responsible campus unit. Rather it is a fundamental broadening of the prevailing

graduate education philosophy on campus, and the consequent manifestations of that

philosophical change.

        Accordingly we anticipate Grad-PREP initiatives to take varied and contextually

dependent forms. Therefore some responsibility for Grad-PREP content and delivery will be

appropriately devolved to individual programs and units. Such decentralization will help

stimulate a campus-wide cultural shift while also allowing each program to determine how to

best meet the unique needs of its students.

        Programs and units will receive guidance and support from the Graduate Division when

developing and delivering Grad-PREP content. Moreover the Graduate Division will actively

foster Grad PREP initiatives in certain core areas expected to be most beneficial to students. In

addition to the mentoring activities presented previously, three such areas were identified

through literature searches, comparisons of peer institutions, and surveys of UCR faculty, post-

docs, and graduate students. These are: 1) grant and fellowship writing, 2) advanced teaching


University of California Riverside      Narrative-10                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


training, and 3) job market preparation. Our SEED students will receive training in each of these

areas.

         Grant and fellowship writing. We will conduct hands-on workshops to help students

prepare predoctoral fellowship grant applications to be submitted to NSF, Ford Foundation, and

other agencies for which students are eligible to apply early in their graduate careers. Similarly,

we will provide grant writing assistance for students completing their degrees who are applying

for postdoctoral fellowships. Students who have demonstrated an ability to obtain outside

funding will be more competitive in the job market. Moreover, having experience in applying

for outside funding will be an asset for individuals who obtain faculty positions in institutions in

which tenure and promotion are dependent on success in obtaining outside funding.

         Advanced teaching training. With funding from a separate grant application, we will

work with our CSU partners and other area colleges to secure short-term lecture positions for

advanced SEED students who express interest in an academic career with a greater teaching

emphasis. Not only will these students receive classroom experience at a teaching college, but

they also will work closely with highly experienced CSU faculty and receive guidance from our

own faculty who are members of the UCR Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

         Job market preparation. Most students learn about career paths through interactions

with their faculty advisor during the regular course of progress towards their degrees. However

the information received and impressions gained by students are likely highly dependent on each

faculty member’s own personal views and experiences in the professoriate. Accordingly, to

provide a broader perspective, we will conduct an annual forum for our students to discuss with


University of California Riverside       Narrative-11                  U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                  Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


faculty various career paths in community colleges, undergraduate colleges and in universities.

We will include faculty from UCR, from our CSU partnerships, from a liberal arts college, such

as Pomona College, and from Riverside Community College. This forum will allow students to

learn about the roles and responsibilities of faculty members at each type of institution.

Furthermore, because research presentations--both at meetings in one’s discipline and as a

component of a job interview--are one of the most important vehicles by which one can make an

impression on others, we will utilize the Get Connected meetings both to discuss what makes a

good research presentation and to provide a forum for practice talks for those students who are to

present their research at meetings and for those who are applying for jobs.

ASSESSMENT OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAMS

        While projects for undergraduate success and timeliness to degree have been

implemented nationwide using some of the methods we have identified (mentoring, community

building, workshops for academic success), this project breaks new ground by modifying these

techniques for the development of graduate students. In establishing formal mechanisms for

preparing students to face the academic and cultural demands of pursuing a graduate degree, we

provide institutional support that is traditionally met by ad hoc means at individual, or at best,

departmental or program levels. We envision helping students, who might otherwise find the

culture of academia completely alien, learn to understand and navigate the demands of that

culture. Rather than relying on individual advisors or programs to meet this challenge, we intend

to work toward creating a campus-wide (and ultimately nationwide) culture of success for such

students choosing to pursue advanced degrees. We also recognize the importance of individual


University of California Riverside       Narrative-12                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                  Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


contact; thus, rather than looking toward larger institutional efforts (by Graduate Divisions or

colleges within universities) to promote the opportunities of graduate education for SEED

students, we will be forging connections at a more immediate level—between undergraduate

programs at area CSUs and their corresponding graduate programs at UCR. The advantage in

this approach is that the students will begin to learn about graduate possibilities much earlier in

their undergraduate careers, participating faculty will identify promising undergraduates and

alert graduate programs, and the students will have an opportunity to visit UCR early enough in

their education to learn what sorts of possibilities exist for them at the graduate level in terms of

programs, funding, and careers. If this program succeeds, as anticipated, we can foresee it being

adopted and implemented at research universities across the nation.

        The FIPSE grant will be instrumental for us in implementing the changes we believe

necessary to enhance the likelihood of this success, and in achieving the critical mass and

momentum needed to sustain these initiatives indefinitely into the future. The program we

foresee emerging will necessarily engage students for their entire time as graduate students and

not just for the two years during which the grant is funded. Ultimately, we expect many of the

students who go through the first two years of the program, who are successful, and who advance

to degree candidacy, in turn, to become student mentors for incoming graduate students. In this

way, we hope to forge a culture of cooperation and academic community building which will

engage students at all levels of their studies together with their faculty advisers.

        The primary objectives and desired outcomes of our proposal are relatively

straightforward and should be easily measured. First, we hope to increase appreciably the


University of California Riverside       Narrative-13                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


population of SEED students seeking advanced degrees. To that end, we will work to grow both

the number of applications and the number of admissions of these students to Ph.D. programs at

UCR, and will be in communication with our sister University of California campuses to monitor

any increase in applications and admissions to their graduate programs. We also hope to

augment the success of these students in pursuit of their degrees by increasing retention of these

students and increasing the number who advance to candidacy. To assess the viability of our

recruitment efforts, we will be tracking increases in the number of applications by SEED

students to the programs participating in the project, the quality of those applications, which

include numeric and subjective indicators, the admission rate of those who have applied, and the

acceptance rate of those offered admission. To appraise the efficacy of the enriched orientation

programs and the mentoring program, we will be tracking a number of indicators of student

progress: students’ grade point averages per term; progress toward advancement to candidacy;

performance on qualifying exams (which in some instances will take place after the grant

expires); and we will request narrative analysis of each student’s progress by both faculty and

peer mentors. Finally, we will be enlisting external evaluators from the Institute of Organizations

and Program Evaluations Research, Claremont Graduate University to assess our learning

outcomes and the overall organization of the project.

WORK PLAN AND DISSEMINATION

In order to achieve our FIPSE project goals and objectives, we will collaborate with our new

Grad-PREP Program and with the Graduate Division’s office of Academic Preparation and

Outreach, which focuses on recruiting minority students to graduate programs and in helping


University of California Riverside      Narrative-14                   U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                              Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


them to succeed once they matriculate. The Project Director and two co-investigators will serve

as the guiding leadership for the project and develop efforts aimed at dissemination. One

Project Co-Coordinator will implement the project including partnering with mentoring faculty,

overseeing relations with our partner programs at the CSUs, establishing seminars for the

training of student mentors, and assisting with disseminations efforts. The other Project Co-

Coordinator will collaborate with the project’s staff to create resources and materials, including

on-line material for mentoring curriculum and training and best practices, and will assist with

overall dissemination efforts.




                                Project Leadership

    Project Co-Investigator       Project Director        Project Co-Investigator             External
        Dr. Leah Haimo           Dr. Joseph Childers        Dr. Ken Baerenklau               Evaluators
        Associate Dean,                Dean,                  Associate Dean,                  Institute
       Graduate Division         Graduate Division           Graduate Division               of Org. and
                                                                                         Program Evaluation,
                                                                                         Claremont Graduate
                                                                                             University.




       Project Co-Coordinator                   Project Co-Coordinator
       Ms. Maria Franco-Aguilar                     Ms. Linda Scott
               Director                                 Director                          Faculty-Student
   Academic Preparation and Outreach            Enrolled Student Services                 Mentor Teams
          Graduate Division                        Graduate Division




The work plan for the project will take place in a number of stages. We have begun to establish

contacts with each of the area CSUs and will work toward solidfying formal partnerships with

specific CSU programs. Each term (quarter), the participating UCR graduate programs will host


University of California Riverside              Narrative-15                        U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                                            FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


a seminar day, in which students and faculty from their partner programs will be invited to share

research and to visit the campus to meet UCR faculty and tour labs and facilities. These

seminars will be organized by the faculty mentors and peer mentors in each program.

        As seen in the organizational chart, above, we will be using two of our our current staff

members as the Project Co-Coordinators. Maria Franco-Aguilar is our Director of Academic

Preparation and Outreach and has extensive experience in both minority recruitment and on-site

mentoring programs. Linda Scott is Director of Enrolled Student Services and is our senior

staff person in charge of Teaching Assistant Development and enrolled student issues. Project

Co-coordinator Franco-Aguilar will assist in identifying and training faculty on the goals and

outcomes of the project; she will also oversee the training of peer mentors, drawing from our

current “Get Connected” under-represented minority graduate students in the STEM fields. She

will hold twice-monthly sessions with the peer mentors and the participating students to evaluate

outcomes and progress toward goals. She will also recruit and train peer mentors from

participating programs in the humanties and social sciences. Ms. Scott will oversee the

development of our web presence and resource materials.

        Both co-coordinators will participate in dissemination of our findings among the

University of California Council of Graduate Deans and at the UC/CSU Conference which takes

place at a host UC campus every two years through the sponsorship of the NSF-funded AGEP

(Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate). As a member of the UC AGEP, UCR

interacts regularly with other AGEP alliances nationwide, with whom we will be sharing our

findings. We will also present our results and findings to SACNAS (Society for Advancement of


University of California Riverside      Narrative-16                  U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                              FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                 Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and

Universities), the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, Council of

Graduate Schools, and other important national entities that are engaged in promoting the

success of SEED students in pursuit of graduate degrees. The Project Co-coordinators will be

instrumental in planning a Dissemination Conference at UCR, to be held upon completion of the

grant’s term, so that we may share our outcomes with our CSU partners and other UC campuses,

and so that we may plan for broader implementations of this program. Further, Co-Coordinator

Scott will be involved in developing information sharing for the participating programs. The

Project Director and Co-Investigators will oversee the collection of data regarding progress

toward our goals and objectives and will also help to coordinate efforts to disseminate our results

nationally. In addition to those venues already noted, we plan to publish articles detailing the

results of our new programs in outlets such as The Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, The

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the Newsletter of the Council of Graduate Schools, and

The Chronicle of Higher Education. We will also evaluate our program for possible expansion

to all entering graduate students, with the idea that, if successful, it could become a model for

preparing students for careers in academia and the professoriate. We intend ultimately to use this

FIPSE grant to establish enduring best practices for graduate student success across our entire

graduate student population. Our intention is to create a new culture of support, information,

and mentoring that will be adopted at individual, program, and college levels, with institutional

coordination through the Graduate Division, and with the potential to be replicated across the

country.


University of California Riverside       Narrative-17                  U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                               FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                               Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


Citations:

    1. Council of Graduate Schools, 2009. Broadening Participation in Graduate Education.

        (http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=365)

    2. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Educational Attainment by Race and

        Hispanic Origin, Table 221.

        (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/education/educational_attainment.html)

    3. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Income, Expenditures, Poverty and Wealth:

        Household Income, Table 669.

        (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/income_expenditures_poverty_wealth/hou

        sehold_income.html).

    4. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Labor Force, Employment and Earnings,

        Table 599.

        (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/labor_force_employment_earnings.html)

    5. US Census Bureau, Population Estimates, National-Characteristics: Annual Estimates of

        the Resident Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: April 1,

        2000 to July 1, 2008 (NC-EST2008-03).

        (http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/NC-EST2008-srh.html).

    6. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2008, Table 297.

        (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_287.asp)

    7. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2008, Table 290.

        (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_290.asp)


University of California Riverside      Narrative-18                 U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                             FIPSE Special Focus Competition
UCR-SEED                                                                Joseph Childers, Ph.D.


    8. Poock, M.C. 2007. “A Shifting Paradigm in the Recruitment and Retention of

        Underrepresented Graduate Students.” J. College Student Retention 9(2): 169-181.

    9. Lewis, C.W., R. Ginsberg, T. Davies, and K. Smith. 2004. “The Experiences of African

        American Ph.D. Students at Predominantly White Carnegie I-Research Institutions.”

        College Student Journal 38(2): 231-245.

    10. 2009 Facts about the CSU (http://www.calstate.edu/PA/2009Facts/)

    11. University of California Office of the President, Statistical Summary and Data on UC

        Students, Faculty, and Staff.

        (http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/uwnews/stat/statsum/fall2008/statsumm2008.pdf)

    12. Hispanics at the California State University

        (calstate.edu/impact/documents/Hispanics_EN.pdf)

    13. National Science Foundation LSAMP program synopsis.

        (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03520/nsf03520.htm)

    14. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 249.

        (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_249.asp)




University of California Riverside      Narrative-19                  U.S. Dept. of Education
                                                              FIPSE Special Focus Competition

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Grant Narrative

  • 1. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. NARRATIVE PROJECT GOALS A recent report1 from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) argues that, although U.S. graduate education remains the envy of the world, there is a “leaky pipeline” from undergraduate institutions to graduate institutions and into sectors of the economy that demand a highly-skilled workforce. A disproportionate amount of this leakage is comprised of under-represented groups whose untapped talent represents foregone leadership, creativity, expertise, and contributions to societal advancement. The report advocates greater attention to the participation and success of these under-represented groups in graduate education because they constitute such a large and underutilized resource. Underutilization of this talent pool also results in persistent socio-economic disparities in American society. As of 2007, 52% of Asian/Pacific Islanders, 29.1% of whites, 18.5% of African Americans, and 12.7% of Hispanics had college degrees or higher2. Not surprisingly, this lower level of educational attainment among African Americans and Hispanics correlates with lower earning power and under-representation within professional careers. For example, the mean Hispanic household income is 76% of that of the mean national household income3; only 19% of Hispanics are employed in professional or managerial jobs compared to 38% of the population as a whole4. Indeed, Hispanics, who constitute approximately 15.4% of the US population5, represent only 5.8% of Master degree recipients6 and 3.4% of doctoral degree recipients7 nationwide. University of California Riverside Narrative-1 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 2. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. Graduate education therefore is an avenue that can effectively advance our common well- being while also addressing social disparities within American society. However, currently there is very limited consensus on how to most effectively promote successful attainment of advanced degrees by under-represented groups. A recent survey8 of graduate schools conducted by Poock (2007) finds that while over three-fourths of respondents engage in recruitment activities focused on under-represented groups, only one-third engages in retention activities. Furthermore, nearly all of these retention activities -- peer and faculty mentoring, professional development opportunities, campus visits and receptions -- generally are perceived by respondents to be ineffective, even though at least one previous study of African-American doctoral students9 finds that “positive relationships with faculty, increased peer interaction, and assistance with adjustment issues” (p.232) are valued by students. Poock (2007) concludes that there remain obvious needs for research and implementation of effective means to promote the success of under-represented groups in graduate education. The goals of this project are to address these needs by using innovative means to encourage socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged (SEED) students to consider graduate school as an attractive and accessible path towards a professional career and to assist SEED students at the University of California at Riverside (UCR) in advancing to candidacy in a timely manner, successfully completing their advanced degrees, and obtaining academic or other professional appointments. UCR, whose undergraduate population ranks among the most diverse in the nation, and which is designated as an Hispanic Serving Institution, is also committed to diversity at the graduate level. In accordance with California Proposition 209, University of California Riverside Narrative-2 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 3. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. which prohibits discriminating against or granting “preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin,” the university defines diversity broadly. Thus, we are attentive to the potential of those students whose backgrounds exhibit socio-economic need, who have faced educational challenges, such as limited access to educational resources, and/or are from the first generation in their families to achieve a college degree (i.e., SEED students). Under-represented minority students --African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans--constitute, on average, approximately 15% of our domestic graduate student enrollment in each of the past four years. It has been our experience that the majority of SEED students also are members of these under-represented groups. By expanding our efforts to make graduate education a viable option for students from diverse backgrounds, we will address an important issue currently bedeviling higher education in the United States: namely, how to increase the diversity of those who choose to pursue graduate degrees, and ultimately how to increase the diversity of our skilled workforce and the professoriate. We anticipate that implementation of the proposed innovative programs will benefit all students who participate by providing them with tools they need to succeed in graduate school and by giving them career development guidance so that, upon graduation, they are likely to seek, obtain, and succeed in faculty and other professional appointments. PROPOSED PROGRAMS We propose to undertake innovative new efforts in four major areas to increase the number of SEED students pursuing advanced degrees as well as the retention and successful career development of these students. University of California Riverside Narrative-3 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 4. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. 1. Enhanced exposure of undergraduate SEED students to graduate education opportunities. Traditional retention efforts begin only after students arrive on campus, even though cultivation of graduate school success by SEED students should begin well before they matriculate into a graduate program. Students who demonstrate the potential and desire to pursue advanced degrees should be identified as undergraduates and educated about applying to and attending graduate school. By developing partnerships between area CSU undergraduate programs and graduate programs at UCR, we anticipate that we can encourage more SEED students to enter doctoral programs at UCR and elsewhere. Given the large number of Hispanic students educated in the CSU system, we expect this aspect of our program to have particular impact upon that group of potential graduate students. The CSU system educates almost twice as many undergraduates10 as does the UC system11, and a high proportion of the CSU student body is Hispanic. For example, Hispanics constitute 42.3% of the student population at CSU Los Angeles and 34% of that of CSU San Bernardino12, the CSU in closest proximity to UCR. With few exceptions (primarily for Ed.D. degrees), the CSUs do not offer doctoral degrees, and therefore CSU students must go elsewhere if they are to earn doctorates. Students who have not considered pursuing a doctoral degree might do so if they learn about and are encouraged to apply to doctoral programs and if they better understand how graduate studies are funded. As part of our education and outreach, we will invite groups of CSU undergraduates to visit UCR to learn about specific graduate programs and possible career paths, to become aware of the financial aid that is available to graduate students, to meet with and talk to our current University of California Riverside Narrative-4 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 5. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. graduate students about their studies and what life is like as a graduate student, and to meet with faculty to learn about ongoing research projects. We will also inform students from our partnership CSUs who are in their sophomore or junior years about our summer research program which is designed to engage students in research and prepare them to apply to graduate school. We will encourage each CSU student whom we meet through these partnership programs to apply to graduate schools, and for those who apply to UCR, we will assist them by guiding them through the application process. We expect that direct interactions with these students will result in CSU students applying and gaining admission to more graduate programs. We have made a number of preliminary contacts with CSU faculty who direct programs that primarily benefit SEED students, have queried them as to their interest in forging such ties between our campuses, and have received very positive responses (see email correspondence in Appendix). As one example, Professor Margaret Jefferson, who directs the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program at CSU Los Angeles, has indicated interest in forging ties with us. The NSF-sponsored LSAMP program “… is aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of students successfully completing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) baccalaureate degree programs, and increasing the number of students interested in, academically qualified for and matriculated into programs of graduate study. LSAMP supports sustained and comprehensive approaches that facilitate achievement of the long-term goal of increasing the number of students who earn doctorates in STEM fields, particularly those from populations underrepresented in STEM fields. The program goals are accomplished through the formation of alliances”.13 We will facilitate formation of such an University of California Riverside Narrative-5 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 6. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. alliance between graduate programs in the STEM fields at UCR and the LSAMP Program at CSU Los Angeles. We will formalize similar partnerships between specific graduate programs at UCR and various programs within all interested area CSUs. In addition to inviting students to visit UCR, we will encourage faculty from UCR to form research partnerships with CSU faculty and their students. Such partnerships should allow us to reach a large group of students, who might only come to consider themselves graduate school material as a result of direct interaction with us. 2. Enriched orientation for students who enter UCR graduate programs from our CSU partnerships. Typical orientation sessions for new graduate students are very brief and impersonal -- ours takes place in a large lecture hall and lasts one afternoon. Therefore we will initiate an enriched orientation program to ensure that SEED students have a smooth entrance into graduate school. Students from our CSU partnerships who are admitted to UCR for graduate school and elect to come here, as well as all other SEED students matriculating into our participating graduate programs, will be invited to come to campus two weeks prior to the beginning of the academic year, where they will undergo a more extensive orientation than will other newly admitted students. We will provide the students who come for the two-week orientation with workshops and seminars on various topics designed to help students acclimate to and understand the expectations of graduate school. Topics will include balancing school and personal life, balancing classes, research and teaching, choosing a faculty adviser, preparing applications for outside funding, becoming effective teaching assistants, and understanding what the ethical University of California Riverside Narrative-6 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 7. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. conduct of research entails. We will involve our current graduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds as leaders for discussions with these students about the challenges presented by being from a socio-economically or educationally disadvantaged background. We will introduce these students to campus support groups and have them participate in team building exercises so they get to know one another and create their own support systems. We anticipate that students who participate in this enriched orientation program will be less likely to drop out of graduate school and will be less likely to encounter academic difficulties than will students who do not participate. 3. Program-specific group mentoring with faculty-student mentor teams. It is not sufficient simply to increase the number of SEED students seeking advanced degrees; these students must successfully complete their degrees if their entry into graduate school is to materialize into successful professional careers. Of our current SEED students, a large portion is Hispanic, so data on that group provide some insight into the issues surrounding retention. An analysis of the retention rate for domestic students who entered UCR PhD programs between the years 1998 and 2003, most of whom would have now completed their PhDs, reveals that 50% of Hispanic students did not complete their programs and dropped out of graduate school. These numbers are comparable to the retention rates for non-Hispanic students at UCR. However, of the Hispanic students who did not complete their degrees, a preponderance withdrew before advancing to candidacy (i.e., completing their course work and passing their qualifying examinations), while non-Hispanics who failed to achieve their degree objectives tended to withdraw after successfully completing their coursework and exams. Along with University of California Riverside Narrative-7 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 8. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. severely damaging their professional prospects both inside and outside of academia, this practice among Hispanic graduate students also indicates that a large number of these promising students are not being acculturated to academia and the demands of graduate school, and thus not only are failing to complete their Ph.D. but also are not succeeding in their early years in their graduate programs when the groundwork for strong academic careers is established. An attrition rate of 50% represents enormous lost potential and wasted effort and resources, both on the part of the student and the university. Effective programs to increase retention should have broad positive repercussions on our campus. We will focus new retention programs on these SEED students, and, if these retention efforts are successful, we will adopt them as the means to help increase retention of graduate students in all programs on campus. As mentioned previously, recent research suggests that traditional one-on-one peer and faculty mentoring are perceived to be ineffective methods for student retention, despite the evidence that students appear to appreciate acculturation efforts. We believe that the perception of ineffectiveness is largely due to two factors that tend to undermine the overall quality of mentoring activities: (1) not everyone is a good mentor, yet many people must serve as mentors under the traditional one-on-one model; (2) mentoring tends to be unstructured, unsupervised, and unrewarded. Therefore, we will utilize group mentoring with faculty-student mentor teams consisting of one faculty member and two current graduate students or post-doctoral fellows in each of our participating programs, with training, structure, content, and oversight provided by the Graduate Division. Both faculty and student mentors will be compensated for their time and must demonstrate experience with, interest in, and compassion toward issues faced by incoming University of California Riverside Narrative-8 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 9. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. SEED students before being appointed as a mentor. Mentoring teams will meet regularly and will be required to cover a basic syllabus provided by the Graduate Division, as well as to allocate time for additional topics of particular relevance to their individual programs. Mentoring will not only benefit students early in their graduate careers but will also benefit the student mentor who will be called upon to articulate why s/he is in graduate school and how s/he managed to survive courses, qualifying exams, advancement to candidacy, and periods in which research seemingly encountered dead-ends. Faculty and student mentors also will be asked to conduct mock exams for students approaching their qualifying exams so that the students gain experience answering questions and thinking on their feet, and the student mentors gain experience relevant to their future careers. To further enhance a sense of community across student cohorts, the Graduate Division will host a monthly “Get Connected” lunch where we will have ongoing discussions on topics of particular concern to all graduate students. 4. Programs to enhance professional and career development of SEED students. Efforts to increase the number of SEED students who receive their PhDs must be accompanied by effective professional and career development activities so that, upon graduation, these students will successfully apply and compete for academic and other professional positions. As of 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, 3.1% of full-time faculty who held the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor at degree granting institutions were Hispanic and 5% were African-American14. If these percentages are to rise, PhD recipients from these and other under-represented groups must understand what faculty and other professional careers entail. University of California Riverside Narrative-9 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 10. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. As with traditional mentoring efforts, Poock (2007) finds that traditional professional development efforts also are perceived by graduate schools to be ineffective retention tools. Our own experience supports this notion and therefore we have been engaged in the design of a new approach for delivering this content which we call Grad-PREP (Graduate Professional Education and Placement). Grad-PREP is envisioned as a campus-wide initiative, coordinated through the Graduate Division, on graduate student professional development and successful career placement. Importantly Grad-PREP is not a series of courses or workshops offered by a singularly responsible campus unit. Rather it is a fundamental broadening of the prevailing graduate education philosophy on campus, and the consequent manifestations of that philosophical change. Accordingly we anticipate Grad-PREP initiatives to take varied and contextually dependent forms. Therefore some responsibility for Grad-PREP content and delivery will be appropriately devolved to individual programs and units. Such decentralization will help stimulate a campus-wide cultural shift while also allowing each program to determine how to best meet the unique needs of its students. Programs and units will receive guidance and support from the Graduate Division when developing and delivering Grad-PREP content. Moreover the Graduate Division will actively foster Grad PREP initiatives in certain core areas expected to be most beneficial to students. In addition to the mentoring activities presented previously, three such areas were identified through literature searches, comparisons of peer institutions, and surveys of UCR faculty, post- docs, and graduate students. These are: 1) grant and fellowship writing, 2) advanced teaching University of California Riverside Narrative-10 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 11. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. training, and 3) job market preparation. Our SEED students will receive training in each of these areas. Grant and fellowship writing. We will conduct hands-on workshops to help students prepare predoctoral fellowship grant applications to be submitted to NSF, Ford Foundation, and other agencies for which students are eligible to apply early in their graduate careers. Similarly, we will provide grant writing assistance for students completing their degrees who are applying for postdoctoral fellowships. Students who have demonstrated an ability to obtain outside funding will be more competitive in the job market. Moreover, having experience in applying for outside funding will be an asset for individuals who obtain faculty positions in institutions in which tenure and promotion are dependent on success in obtaining outside funding. Advanced teaching training. With funding from a separate grant application, we will work with our CSU partners and other area colleges to secure short-term lecture positions for advanced SEED students who express interest in an academic career with a greater teaching emphasis. Not only will these students receive classroom experience at a teaching college, but they also will work closely with highly experienced CSU faculty and receive guidance from our own faculty who are members of the UCR Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Job market preparation. Most students learn about career paths through interactions with their faculty advisor during the regular course of progress towards their degrees. However the information received and impressions gained by students are likely highly dependent on each faculty member’s own personal views and experiences in the professoriate. Accordingly, to provide a broader perspective, we will conduct an annual forum for our students to discuss with University of California Riverside Narrative-11 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 12. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. faculty various career paths in community colleges, undergraduate colleges and in universities. We will include faculty from UCR, from our CSU partnerships, from a liberal arts college, such as Pomona College, and from Riverside Community College. This forum will allow students to learn about the roles and responsibilities of faculty members at each type of institution. Furthermore, because research presentations--both at meetings in one’s discipline and as a component of a job interview--are one of the most important vehicles by which one can make an impression on others, we will utilize the Get Connected meetings both to discuss what makes a good research presentation and to provide a forum for practice talks for those students who are to present their research at meetings and for those who are applying for jobs. ASSESSMENT OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAMS While projects for undergraduate success and timeliness to degree have been implemented nationwide using some of the methods we have identified (mentoring, community building, workshops for academic success), this project breaks new ground by modifying these techniques for the development of graduate students. In establishing formal mechanisms for preparing students to face the academic and cultural demands of pursuing a graduate degree, we provide institutional support that is traditionally met by ad hoc means at individual, or at best, departmental or program levels. We envision helping students, who might otherwise find the culture of academia completely alien, learn to understand and navigate the demands of that culture. Rather than relying on individual advisors or programs to meet this challenge, we intend to work toward creating a campus-wide (and ultimately nationwide) culture of success for such students choosing to pursue advanced degrees. We also recognize the importance of individual University of California Riverside Narrative-12 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 13. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. contact; thus, rather than looking toward larger institutional efforts (by Graduate Divisions or colleges within universities) to promote the opportunities of graduate education for SEED students, we will be forging connections at a more immediate level—between undergraduate programs at area CSUs and their corresponding graduate programs at UCR. The advantage in this approach is that the students will begin to learn about graduate possibilities much earlier in their undergraduate careers, participating faculty will identify promising undergraduates and alert graduate programs, and the students will have an opportunity to visit UCR early enough in their education to learn what sorts of possibilities exist for them at the graduate level in terms of programs, funding, and careers. If this program succeeds, as anticipated, we can foresee it being adopted and implemented at research universities across the nation. The FIPSE grant will be instrumental for us in implementing the changes we believe necessary to enhance the likelihood of this success, and in achieving the critical mass and momentum needed to sustain these initiatives indefinitely into the future. The program we foresee emerging will necessarily engage students for their entire time as graduate students and not just for the two years during which the grant is funded. Ultimately, we expect many of the students who go through the first two years of the program, who are successful, and who advance to degree candidacy, in turn, to become student mentors for incoming graduate students. In this way, we hope to forge a culture of cooperation and academic community building which will engage students at all levels of their studies together with their faculty advisers. The primary objectives and desired outcomes of our proposal are relatively straightforward and should be easily measured. First, we hope to increase appreciably the University of California Riverside Narrative-13 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 14. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. population of SEED students seeking advanced degrees. To that end, we will work to grow both the number of applications and the number of admissions of these students to Ph.D. programs at UCR, and will be in communication with our sister University of California campuses to monitor any increase in applications and admissions to their graduate programs. We also hope to augment the success of these students in pursuit of their degrees by increasing retention of these students and increasing the number who advance to candidacy. To assess the viability of our recruitment efforts, we will be tracking increases in the number of applications by SEED students to the programs participating in the project, the quality of those applications, which include numeric and subjective indicators, the admission rate of those who have applied, and the acceptance rate of those offered admission. To appraise the efficacy of the enriched orientation programs and the mentoring program, we will be tracking a number of indicators of student progress: students’ grade point averages per term; progress toward advancement to candidacy; performance on qualifying exams (which in some instances will take place after the grant expires); and we will request narrative analysis of each student’s progress by both faculty and peer mentors. Finally, we will be enlisting external evaluators from the Institute of Organizations and Program Evaluations Research, Claremont Graduate University to assess our learning outcomes and the overall organization of the project. WORK PLAN AND DISSEMINATION In order to achieve our FIPSE project goals and objectives, we will collaborate with our new Grad-PREP Program and with the Graduate Division’s office of Academic Preparation and Outreach, which focuses on recruiting minority students to graduate programs and in helping University of California Riverside Narrative-14 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 15. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. them to succeed once they matriculate. The Project Director and two co-investigators will serve as the guiding leadership for the project and develop efforts aimed at dissemination. One Project Co-Coordinator will implement the project including partnering with mentoring faculty, overseeing relations with our partner programs at the CSUs, establishing seminars for the training of student mentors, and assisting with disseminations efforts. The other Project Co- Coordinator will collaborate with the project’s staff to create resources and materials, including on-line material for mentoring curriculum and training and best practices, and will assist with overall dissemination efforts. Project Leadership Project Co-Investigator Project Director Project Co-Investigator External Dr. Leah Haimo Dr. Joseph Childers Dr. Ken Baerenklau Evaluators Associate Dean, Dean, Associate Dean, Institute Graduate Division Graduate Division Graduate Division of Org. and Program Evaluation, Claremont Graduate University. Project Co-Coordinator Project Co-Coordinator Ms. Maria Franco-Aguilar Ms. Linda Scott Director Director Faculty-Student Academic Preparation and Outreach Enrolled Student Services Mentor Teams Graduate Division Graduate Division The work plan for the project will take place in a number of stages. We have begun to establish contacts with each of the area CSUs and will work toward solidfying formal partnerships with specific CSU programs. Each term (quarter), the participating UCR graduate programs will host University of California Riverside Narrative-15 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 16. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. a seminar day, in which students and faculty from their partner programs will be invited to share research and to visit the campus to meet UCR faculty and tour labs and facilities. These seminars will be organized by the faculty mentors and peer mentors in each program. As seen in the organizational chart, above, we will be using two of our our current staff members as the Project Co-Coordinators. Maria Franco-Aguilar is our Director of Academic Preparation and Outreach and has extensive experience in both minority recruitment and on-site mentoring programs. Linda Scott is Director of Enrolled Student Services and is our senior staff person in charge of Teaching Assistant Development and enrolled student issues. Project Co-coordinator Franco-Aguilar will assist in identifying and training faculty on the goals and outcomes of the project; she will also oversee the training of peer mentors, drawing from our current “Get Connected” under-represented minority graduate students in the STEM fields. She will hold twice-monthly sessions with the peer mentors and the participating students to evaluate outcomes and progress toward goals. She will also recruit and train peer mentors from participating programs in the humanties and social sciences. Ms. Scott will oversee the development of our web presence and resource materials. Both co-coordinators will participate in dissemination of our findings among the University of California Council of Graduate Deans and at the UC/CSU Conference which takes place at a host UC campus every two years through the sponsorship of the NSF-funded AGEP (Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate). As a member of the UC AGEP, UCR interacts regularly with other AGEP alliances nationwide, with whom we will be sharing our findings. We will also present our results and findings to SACNAS (Society for Advancement of University of California Riverside Narrative-16 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 17. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities), the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, Council of Graduate Schools, and other important national entities that are engaged in promoting the success of SEED students in pursuit of graduate degrees. The Project Co-coordinators will be instrumental in planning a Dissemination Conference at UCR, to be held upon completion of the grant’s term, so that we may share our outcomes with our CSU partners and other UC campuses, and so that we may plan for broader implementations of this program. Further, Co-Coordinator Scott will be involved in developing information sharing for the participating programs. The Project Director and Co-Investigators will oversee the collection of data regarding progress toward our goals and objectives and will also help to coordinate efforts to disseminate our results nationally. In addition to those venues already noted, we plan to publish articles detailing the results of our new programs in outlets such as The Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the Newsletter of the Council of Graduate Schools, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. We will also evaluate our program for possible expansion to all entering graduate students, with the idea that, if successful, it could become a model for preparing students for careers in academia and the professoriate. We intend ultimately to use this FIPSE grant to establish enduring best practices for graduate student success across our entire graduate student population. Our intention is to create a new culture of support, information, and mentoring that will be adopted at individual, program, and college levels, with institutional coordination through the Graduate Division, and with the potential to be replicated across the country. University of California Riverside Narrative-17 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 18. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. Citations: 1. Council of Graduate Schools, 2009. Broadening Participation in Graduate Education. (http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=365) 2. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Educational Attainment by Race and Hispanic Origin, Table 221. (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/education/educational_attainment.html) 3. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Income, Expenditures, Poverty and Wealth: Household Income, Table 669. (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/income_expenditures_poverty_wealth/hou sehold_income.html). 4. US Census Bureau, 2009 Statistical Abstract: Labor Force, Employment and Earnings, Table 599. (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/labor_force_employment_earnings.html) 5. US Census Bureau, Population Estimates, National-Characteristics: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008 (NC-EST2008-03). (http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/NC-EST2008-srh.html). 6. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2008, Table 297. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_287.asp) 7. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2008, Table 290. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_290.asp) University of California Riverside Narrative-18 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition
  • 19. UCR-SEED Joseph Childers, Ph.D. 8. Poock, M.C. 2007. “A Shifting Paradigm in the Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Graduate Students.” J. College Student Retention 9(2): 169-181. 9. Lewis, C.W., R. Ginsberg, T. Davies, and K. Smith. 2004. “The Experiences of African American Ph.D. Students at Predominantly White Carnegie I-Research Institutions.” College Student Journal 38(2): 231-245. 10. 2009 Facts about the CSU (http://www.calstate.edu/PA/2009Facts/) 11. University of California Office of the President, Statistical Summary and Data on UC Students, Faculty, and Staff. (http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/uwnews/stat/statsum/fall2008/statsumm2008.pdf) 12. Hispanics at the California State University (calstate.edu/impact/documents/Hispanics_EN.pdf) 13. National Science Foundation LSAMP program synopsis. (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03520/nsf03520.htm) 14. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 249. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_249.asp) University of California Riverside Narrative-19 U.S. Dept. of Education FIPSE Special Focus Competition