IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES TO SUPPORT RETENTION OF INDIVIDUALS WITH MINORITIZED IDENTITIES IN STEM AND AQUATIC SCIENCES

To support the equitable advancement of underrepresented and minoritized students in aquatic sciences, we offer immersive educational experiences that focus on fostering a supportive space with an emphasis on retention through a multitude of tools, including collaborations between minority serving institutions and research intensive universities, multigenerational mentoring, cohort building, focused recruitment, and program funding. Immersive educational experiences quickly build trust among cohorts, develop sustained STEM identities, and incorporate transdisciplinary thinking. These experiences range from 3 to 10 days and are fully funded experiences for the students including food, lodging, and transportation. Providing a stipend has increased the diversity of the cohort. The experiences are designed around a purpose, the PATHwayS Camp has an engineering design challenge, and the D-ENTERPRISE summer immersive experience will expose undergraduate fellows to potential Ph.D.-level careers in support of Naval-related ocean research. There is an intentional layering of planned experiences, food types, exposure to diverse experts, and new spaces and places as well as valuing of students’ lived experiences and cultural strengths. After travelling and learning as a group, the students present what they’ve learned to an exterior audience. Through these immersive experiences, students make lasting relationships with each other and the mentors on the trip, they enjoy time spent in a minority majority space, and they carry that strength forward with them upon returning to campus.

Presentation Preference: Either

Primary Presenter: Aimee Bonanno, UMass Boston (aimee.bonanno@umb.edu)

Authors:

Aimee Bonanno, UMass Boston School for the Environment  (aimee.bonanno@umb.edu)

Robert Chen, UMass Boston School for the Environment  (bob.chen@umb.edu)