AGEP PROJECT PROFILE INFORMATION:

The Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Program at Rice University

 

PI: Jordan Konisky

Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, Rice University,

MS13,

6100 Main Street,

Houston, TX, 77005

 

Program Coordinator / Director: Richard Tapia,

Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics,

Rice University,

MS134,

6100 Main Street,

Houston, TX, 77005

 

Preferred day-to-day contact person: Theresa Chatman,

AGEP Project Manager,

Rice University,

MS641,

6100 Main Street,

Houston, TX, 77005

Primary Partners:

The College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Secondary Partners:

The Houston Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program

 

Disciplines / departments:

 

·         All of the science and engineering departments at Rice University,

·         The College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Website address:        http://rgs.rice.edu/Grad/agep  

 

Impact nugget:

 

Significantly increasing enrollment of underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate programs is the first step toward our overall goal--but we cannot stop there.  In order to effect real change on campuses across the nation we must also retain these students through completion of their Ph.D.  This aim has been best realized by creating a community that values diversity and provides a supportive structure for students.  These characteristics were recognized as key components in the evaluation of the Rice AGEP Program.

 

A survey of past and current graduate students revealed that 92% of the respondents felt that their Rice AGEP experience had a positive to very positive impact on their desire to remain in graduate school or complete their degrees, and 88% felt that AGEP provided them with a feeling of community support.

 

Administrative leadership is critical to establishing successful programs at any university.  Rice University is fortunate to have an administration that has placed a high priority on a diverse student body and faculty.  Facilitation and leadership are provided in the area of diversity at the highest levels of the campus.  President Malcolm Gillis has, from his inaugural address onward, emphasized the importance of minority participation in the life of the university.  In the face of the Hopwood decision, he encouraged administration and faculty to seek alternative mechanisms to ensure diversity on our campus. Through encouragement from Rice’s AGEP Steering Committee, which is led by Richard Tapia, President Gillis institutionalized the Rice University Faculty Mentoring Award and the President’s Lecture Series of Diverse Scholars.

 

In Year 5, the AGEP Program at Rice supported 34 graduate students throughout the academic year and sponsored various retention activities.  We also held a successful summer program with 32 graduate students and 20 undergraduate students who worked on research projects and participated in various mentoring and professional development activities.

 

Because of the success of the AGEP Summer Program, three other NSF-sponsored REU summer programs on campus aligned with AGEP for a combined total number of 87 students during the summer of 2003.

 

In addition, the AGEP Program at Rice collaborates with several programs on a national basis.  A key element common to all is the use of AGEP Graduate Students to impact teachers, K-12 students, and undergraduates with the knowledge that these minority students are achieving high levels of success.  Partner institutions and programs include:

 

§         Graduate Engineering Research Scholars (GERS) Program in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

§         Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP)

§         Consortium of Western and Puerto Rico AGEPs (COWPRA)

§         Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) Program in Cellular Engineering

§         Education, Outreach, and Training Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI)

§         Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN)

§         Computer Science Computing and Mentoring Partnerships (CS-CAMP)

§         Engineering Bridges Program

§         Houston Urban Learning Initiatives in a Networked Community (HULINC)

 

Statement: 

 

The receipt of the MGE/AGEP Award provided Richard Tapia with the avenue to expand the minority graduate education efforts within his department amongst all of the science and engineering departments on campus, as well as to the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  We will continue our efforts of expanding our model to various institutions across the nation.