GP-UP WESPATHS: Waterways for Environmental Science - Promoting Advancement and Training for Hands-On Supports

This project seeks to develop a vibrant geoscience learning ecosystem designed to increase the number and diversity of undergraduate students pursuing geosciences careers. Representation of historically excluded groups in the geosciences continues to be substantially below whole population representation, despite the many programs designed to close this gap. Particularly troubling is the gap in representation of Black environmental- and geo-scientists. The Waterways for Environmental Science – Promoting Advancement and Training through Hands-on Supports (WES-PATHS) project is designed to increase post-secondary student parity in the geosciences, while researching underlying questions that should inform recruitment and retention, career readiness and vocational discernment. WES-PATHS will build a relationship between area high schools and North Carolina Wesleyan College (NCWU), providing high school students, teachers, and counselors with more accessible opportunities to explore the pursuit of higher education in the geosciences. The goal of WES-PATHS is to support workforce development and diversity in the geosciences by increasing the number of students majoring and minoring in Environmental Science (ES) at NCWU, with an emphasis on increasing recruitment and retention of students from historically excluded groups. To achieve this goal, this program will: (1) target outreach and recruitment of prospective students from nine high schools in the Rocky Mount area, many with majority minority student bodies; (2) develop a geoscience learning ecosystem that begins in high school and follows students through a first-year orientation, with faculty and near-peer mentorship throughout their first year; (3) build skills and competency for career readiness through either a research internship or professional externship; (4) encourage self-efficacy and belonging in ES students through field and lab experiences; and (5) use project-based learning with direct stakeholder engagement to address issues of local water quality and quantity. By integrating activities and creating a supportive environment that begins more than a semester before students matriculate, this project seeks to lower barriers to recruitment, retention, and graduation to support a more diverse student body prepared to enter the regional workforce. 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.