The National Science Foundation has awarded University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) nearly $1 million to help improve diversity and inclusion in STEM graduate programs.
The funding will be used to redesign institutional support for marginalized doctoral students. UCSC said it will use three campus programs as case studies.
“We’re excited to lead this effort to redefine what it means to succeed in STEM and academia,” said Su-hua Wang, professor of psychology and principal investigator on this project. “By challenging traditional meritocratic frameworks and valuing the unique cultural strengths our students bring, we can create more supportive, empowering environments where every graduate student feels a sense of belonging, finds their voice, and has the opportunity to thrive.”
UCSC said that the NSF-funded project builds on the Community Cultural Wealth model, which values students’ cultural strengths, and the Mobilization of Capital framework, which emphasizes using existing and co-building new resources to foster growth.
The three programs that will be used as initial case studies are the New Gen Learning Research Consortium, the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship program, and the Equity-Minded Mentoring Certificate program. These programs are affiliated with the Institute for Social Transformation, the Division of Graduate Studies, and the Teaching and Learning Center, respectively. ICSC explained that these initiatives will undergo redesign to further elevate their ability to harness students’ cultural strengths and support meaningful, long-term cultural change within STEM graduate education.
The university explained that this project uses a four-stage approach to redesign institutional support for marginalized doctoral students:
- Stage 1 will involve gathering baseline data on the programs to assess their current strengths and areas for improvement, with a particular focus on how well they currently mobilize students’ community cultural wealth.
- Stage 2 will focus on building relationships between programs and home departments, encouraging a collaborative dialogue about cultures of support for STEM graduate students. The findings from Stage 1 will be shared with program staff and department contacts, who will then contribute to the redesign of program elements.
- Stage 3 will involve implementing the redesign plans in coordination with institutional leaders and gathering feedback from participants, providing an opportunity to observe the mobilization process in action.
- Stage 4 will evaluate the impacts of these redesigned programs and assess the long-term effects on institutional culture, practices, and support structures.
