Institutionalizing Inclusive Graduate Academic Culture for the Success of Underrepresented Doctoral Students: The PITT STRIVE Program

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Presenter

Sylvanus Wosu, Pitt Strive (AGEP-KAT)

Co-Authors

Steve Abramowitch, Sarah Zappe, Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Melissa Bilec, Yetunde Olaore, David Gau

Abstract

Many programs within universities that aim to increase underrepresented PhD production in STEM do so from the perspective of changing the students to fit an existing academic culture. Such programs often see only marginal support from faculty and the institution as a whole. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program has awarded the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering a Knowledge and Translation (AGEP-KAT) project with the focus of adapting and adopting evidence-based strategies and practices that support the success of underrepresented doctoral students in engineering. Rather than focusing on changing underrepresented students to fit an existing culture, our goal was to adapt and adopt strategies aimed at changing our academic culture to increase student success. These strategies focused on improving faculty engagement with underrepresented doctoral students, making faculty more aware of the systemic barriers that underrepresented doctoral students face, developing a shared vision among invested faculty regarding
the success of underrepresented doctoral students, and promoting a more inclusive and supportive academic culture climate. Our program, named by our students as PITT STRIVE, has contributed to our school’s greatest increase in underrepresented student enrollment into engineering doctoral programs in our history. This presentation will describe the implementation of these strategies and their impact on our academic culture and students as assessed via an in-depth external evaluation of the program. These data show that students’ perceptions of their professional and educational skills, connections with our faculty, and feelings of belonging have been positively impacted. The program has now graduated 17 PhDs in five years, which is an increase of 325% over the 5 years prior to the program’s implementation. This presentation will also describe the opportunities and challenges for other institutions that wish to implement a similar program.