NSF Award
2304844
The History, Geography & Museum Studies Department at Morgan State University in Baltimore City, USA will operate a two-year pilot bridge program involving 20 undergraduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The pilot aims to assist these students in transitioning to graduate-level degree programs in geography, the geosciences, and geospatial sciences. The targeted undergraduates will have had preparation and demonstrate substantial promise for graduate study in those discipline fields through completed elective and required coursework in relevant major and minor degree programs. HBCUs located in the Chesapeake region of the United States are the principal talent pools of the program, and are inclusive of Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Howard University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The aim of the program is to equip the next generation of scientists representing geography, the geosciences, and geospatial sciences with conceptual and practical tools that serve to produce culturally relevant solutions to water hazards and climate change matters of an environmental, political, and economic quality. Those matters most often disproportionately impact people of color residing in urban, suburban, and coastal environments. The program will provide classroom-based and virtual workshops emphasizing leadership principles and values espoused by geographers, geoscientists, geospatial scientists, and those in other disciplines. Additionally, field-based study opportunities are offered to help participants formulate a higher degree of understanding towards scientific research and advocacy relating to water hazard mitigation in Baltimore City and elsewhere in the Chesapeake region that reflect past, present, and forecasted climate change exposures of variable cause and consequence which lead oftentimes to disasters of small and extreme proportions. By combining training workshops and field study exercises relating to water hazards and climate change in different environment types, particularly for those who encounter institutional and other place-based constraints, the program has great potential to stand as a model example of leadership development for people of color to empower themselves to be scientists who hold in the highest regard and practice principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the academy and beyond through their research and citizenship duties. Furthermore, the program may offer non-participating HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions across the United States functional approaches for increasing their number of undergraduates who intentionally seek and view the acquisition of advanced degrees in the disciplines of program focus as the means for greater representation and leadership across other scientific fields of endeavor and in the larger society. <br/><br/>This two-year pilot bridge program serves to build the quantity and quality of United States graduate students of color in geography, the geosciences, and geospatial sciences through hands-on research training exercises, expert guidance, and mentoring support. The program targets those enrolled at HBCUs located in the Chesapeake region who possess a major as well as moderate relationship with the disciplines of focus through degree enrollment status and coursework completion yet may lack additional stimuli, supports, and pathways towards graduate-level study. The program aims to enable target students to go beyond traditional classroom structures and embark on field research adventures that contribute to building their: (1) comprehension of scientific viewpoints in geography, geosciences, and geospatial sciences relating to water hazards and climate change; (2) confidence in the use of scientific research instruments towards knowledge production for policymaking and practice purposes; and (3) communication skills for public awareness campaigns in close proximity and equal partnership with city neighborhood residents, community-based nonprofit organizations, government agencies, professional organizations, local and national conservation groups and institutes, and environment-centered laboratories. Three principles defining program suggest that: (1) high-touch field-based research experiences are effective learning and career development pathways towards environmental matters like water hazards and climate change; (2) the chances for graduate program application and enrollment success with the disciplines of focus rise when HBCU undergraduates receive intentional and caring support; and (3) community-university partnerships lead to better science and discovery towards greater public understanding and implementation of culturally responsive approaches towards dealing with variable and disproportionate water hazard and climate change impacts when people of color in cities, suburbs, and coastal towns across the Chesapeake region and perhaps beyond its boundaries are centered in such work.<br/><br/>This project is jointly funded by the Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD-EN) Program and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Excellence in Research (HBCU-EiR) Program.<br/><br/>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.
