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.