The National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program has awarded a five-year $3.5M grant to Molloy University, which is leading an alliance of seven member institutions from the Lower Hudson Valley Catholic Colleges and Universities Consortium (LHVCCUC), an alliance comprising ten private Catholic colleges and universities across New York State. The seven private Catholic colleges and universities participating in the program are Molloy University, Manhattan College, Mount Saint Mary College, St. Francis College, St. John’s University, St. Joseph’s University New York, and St. Thomas Aquinas College.
The grant will support student success by creating a new generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discoverers for the national STEM enterprise. The program will take a comprehensive approach to the STEM learning ecosystem to impact STEM student development and retention. The program will have a director housed at Molloy, with a steering committee represented by members from each institution.
LSAMP is an alliance-based program, whereby a group of institutions of higher education (IHEs) work together to diversify the nation's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce by increasing the number of STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees awarded to persons from LSAMP populations. LSAMP populations are defined as persons from groups underrepresented in the STEM enterprise: Blacks and African-Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
“This partnership and collaboration for a grant among seven Catholic universities is unique, creative, and noteworthy,” said Molloy University President James Lentini. “The multifaceted goal of the grant is to support underrepresented minority students in STEM. This is important and valuable for the communities and populations we serve. It is good for the region.”
The LSAMP program provides funding to alliances that implement comprehensive, evidence-based, innovative, and sustained strategies that ultimately result in the graduation of well-prepared, highly competitive students from LSAMP populations who pursue graduate studies or careers in STEM, while also supporting knowledge generation, knowledge utilization, assessment of program impacts, dissemination activities and dissemination of scholarly research into the field.
The program will adopt intersectionality and a sense of belonging as overarching frameworks. Intersectionality provides an opportunity to understand the multi-layered identities of the students served by the LHVCCUC alliance and to design project activities that address unique marginalizing experiences for individuals.. In higher education, a sense of belonging can refer to students' perceptions of social support within the campus environment. It encompasses feelings of connectedness, being valued, cared for, respected, and important to the campus community including faculty, staff, and peers. The program aims to employ these frameworks to lessen systemic and institutional barriers for underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM to achieve LSAMP’s overall mission.
“We are truly excited about this opportunity for our students and our institutions,” said Molloy University Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Donald “DJ” Mitchell, Jr., who spearheaded the grant application. “While educating students of color in STEM is undeniably important, to be able to support them at institutions that care for their heads, hearts, and hands, as guided by our Catholic traditions, is particularly special. That’s what we envisioned when we pulled the LHVCCUC together for this proposal, and we’re delighted that our vision is now a reality.”
Guided by the overarching frameworks, the alliance will seek to achieve four overarching goals:
- Increase the enrollment of URMs in STEM majors.
- Improve first- to second-year retention.
- Foster strong STEM/scientist identities through STEM enrichment activities.
- Support successful entry into graduate study and STEM careers.
“Given that the LHVCCUC alliance includes private Catholic Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) and emerging MSIs within a geographically diverse region, the program could serve as a case study or example of how other institutions with similar characteristics might fortify STEM pipelines for URM students within their institutional contexts,” said President Lentini. “The alliance will also help further establish our region as a hub for STEM academics and the STEM workforce.”
The culturally relevant evaluation findings will be shared with the LSAMP and broader communities to further inform literature related to the success of URMs in STEM.
