10/4/2024 Eleanor Wyllie
Written by Eleanor Wyllie
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will lead a new $3.5 million, five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) initiative. This project aims to increase the number of baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs awarded to Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students to diversify the STEM workforce. LSAMP programs are designed to implement innovative, evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies that result in highly competitive students who ultimately pursue graduate degrees or careers in STEM.
The Southern and Central Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SCI-LSAMP) is comprised of six institutions: Bradley University, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Western Illinois University. This new alliance is one of 58 alliances nationwide, the third established in Illinois, and first in central and southern regions of the state. There was particular interest in establishing an alliance in these regions which reflects lower demographics of diversity outside of the Chicagoland area. Chancellor Robert J. Jones is the principal investigator of this project.
“The SCI-LSAMP alliance will allow our institutions to implement comprehensive, ambitious and evidence-based strategies to prepare the next generation of STEM researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs. We are proud to join with our partners in central and southern Illinois to make that dream a reality for as many people as possible.”
--University of Illinois Chancellor Robert J. Jones
Ashleigh Wright, Associate Director at the IDEA Institute in The Grainger College of Engineering, led the funding initiative and serves as the Program Director and co-PI. She is joined by project co-PIs Teaching Assistant Professor in Bioengineering Holly Golecki; Professor of Microbiology Brenda Wilson, Associate Director for Undergraduate Education in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology; and Professor of Psychology Alejandro Lleras, Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The program will focus on four pillars: academic enrichment, research engagement, professional development and graduate school and career exploration. The team has established a number of collaborations to successful execute their vision including the Community-Academic Scholars Program in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute to offer community-engaged research, the Graduate College to facilitate a summer research program, and faculty for guided lab-based research opportunities and mentorship. The alliance also plans to work with Argonne National Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories.
Wright comments: “It's really about exposure for the students to opportunities that exist in STEM – research, graduate school, internships, and developing the necessary skills to be disciplined and successful in their studies. We have structured a holistic program centered around the scholars. Building their confidence, self-efficacy, and identities as scientists and engineers is central to our program. We want scholars to visualize themselves as STEM professionals in any sector.
“Scholars will have opportunities to present their work at professional research conferences, and network with students and professionals that look like them, who are doing similar work at different institutions. They get to engage with peers, faculty, and professionals across the United States that are all part of the LSAMP network.”
The LSAMP program has personal significance for Wright. Before joining the U. of I., she was a Bridge to the Doctorate Fellow at Louisiana State University when she started graduate school. Wright went on to be part of a team at North Carolina State University that successfully funded an LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program in 2017.
“LSAMP has been part of my career since I started as a graduate student,” Wright says. “This is something that I really wanted to pursue professionally, and I'm excited to bring it here. It’s been a passion project for me, essentially. And it's been a great team effort with all the other partners.”