A growing number of colleges and universities are gaining an edge on recruiting and retaining more minority students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by forming cross-campus partnerships.
Through these partnerships, public, private and historically Black colleges exchange resources and best practices to implement programs focused on student support, academic enrichment and research skill development. Such alliances also allow schools to pursue grant money toward increasing enrollment among underrepresented groups. Recently, the Virginia-North Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation received a second, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to assist minority students in STEM. With the additional infusion of $3.5 million, the Alliance can augment its summer transition programs, peer mentoring, academic monitoring, workshops, summer research experiences, living learning community and field trips.
“Program activities are as influential to students as their parents because your peer network becomes your support network,” said Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves, institutional project director at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., a member of the Virginia-North Carolina Alliance.
Other members of the alliance include Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.; Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, N.C.; George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.; Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Va.; St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C.; University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va.
Under the grant renewal, the Alliance plans to add Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville.
Though effective alone, the social and community services offered to students tend to yield greater efficacy when provided through the collaboration. Such collectives have helped increase minority enrollment in STEM majors from 35,670 in 1991 to more than 225,000 in 2013, according to the National Science Foundation. STEM enrollment among all Virginia-North Carolina Alliance institutions has increased 39 percent from 3,500 students in 2007 to nearly 5,000 minority students in 2012, according to the Alliance.
