Recent reports indicate that students from immigrant backgrounds are interested and concerned about environmental issues, but there is a discrepancy between the proportion of minorities in the US population and number of minority students completing degrees and pursuing careers in science. The number of PhDs in science granted to Latinos has increased only slightly since 1975, and does not reflect the growth rate of this population segment. Thus, there is a fundamental and urgent need to improve the learning and professional success of this minority population at undergraduate levels. The predominantly Hispanic student population of UTEP (~80%) provides a unique opportunity to train scientists that will be able to adequately address the challenges of global change. Thus, we implemented experiential learning and stratified mentoring by re-structuring the environmental science curriculum at UTEP to increase recruitment and retention of Hispanic students. Incoming students are placed into a learning community, sophomore students enroll in a year-long research course, and upper division students complete summer internships and specialized courses in regional water sustainability. Senior students mentor sophomore students in research related activities. Program impacts and student gains were measured using pre- and post-surveys, and a revised version of the Undergraduate Student Self-Assessment (URSSA).
Results/Conclusions
Over the five years (2013-2017) that the program has been implemented, enrollment increased steadily from 66 to 102. Over the same period, the retention rate doubled from 43% to 80%. Students gave positive responses about the learning community approach including the friendship and support that the cohort-based classes provided, increased opportunities to interact with peers, an understanding of the goals and structure of the ESCI program, and the diversity of research and career opportunities in environmental science. Survey results also showed that experiential learning and one-on-one mentoring improved students’ technical, professional and soft skills, increased their awareness of and interest in solving environmental issues, and increased their likelihood to pursue a STEM career Students' science identity and self-efficacy as an environmental scientist also improved Many of the reforms that were made, such as learning communities and mentored research experiences, are easily transferable to other institutions.