Pathways to a Diverse STEM Workforce: GEM Underrepresented Minority Internships in STEM Program

The Division of Chemistry, the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems, the Division of Physics, and the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation jointly fund this project by the GEM Consortium. The GEM Underrepresented Minority Internships in STEM Program is designed to build a diverse workforce in STEM fields such as chemistry, engineering, and physics, by focusing on connecting underrepresented (e.g., African American, Hispanic American/Latino, and Native American) graduate students to leading industries in the United States (US). The program provides this group of emerging talented graduate students with knowledge, mentoring, professional development, and hands-on training that will allow them to be competitive for leadership positions in these industries. Specifically, this project will allow the National GEM Consortium (GEM) to implement the GEM Internships in STEM Program by deploying the partnerships that have been developed among GEM, chemistry and other related physical science industries, higher education institutions, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) around mutual goals for increasing the diversity of talent and leadership in the national STEM workforce. This project allows GEM to leverage earlier NSF awards that have supported initial design and implementation of an internship program focused on building pathways to careers in STEM and more recently specifically into chemistry related fields. The project will support 89 graduate students over a three-year period and create better alignment between demand in the workforce and supply of diverse talent. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.