Maryland Sea Grant strives to provide students from underrepresented groups in marine science opportunities to participate in its NSF-supported Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in estuarine science. While women dominate the applicant/accepted student pool, we are testing different strategies to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups in our program. We use such strategies as:
Developing trust and partnerships with faculty at minority serving institutions
Expanding our outreach in advertising our program
Recruiting potential applicants at professional meetings
Targeting minority serving institutions within and beyond our region
Encouraging our REU alumni to promote our REU program among their peers
Improving our application process
These strategies contribute to improved diversity and composition of our student pool. To help sustain long-term outcomes, we are exploring ways to work directly with minority-serving institutions to build ‘bridging REU programs’ that can train prospective REU students and thus enlarge the pool of potential applicants to recruit.
Presented by Fredrika Moser, Jonathan Kramer, and Jenna Clark at the 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT
