2017 (see original presentation & discussion)
Undergraduate, Graduate
The shared purpose and bold vision of the CAHSI INCLUDES effort is to achieve parity in the number of Hispanics who complete computation-based graduate studies through expanded partnerships that include 2-year college feeders. The long-term goal is to pursue this vision through networked partnerships across regions of the U.S. with significant Hispanic populations, partnerships that collectively adapt and adopt proven practices and apply them throughout the higher education system of 2-year colleges and baccalaureate-, master’s-, and doctorate-granting universities. Specifically, the focus is on targeting the pool of talented students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) who, for various reasons, do not choose to continue on STEM educational and career pathways. The efforts will focus on transitioning Hispanic students from associate degree programs to baccalaureate programs and those in baccalaureate programs to graduate studies.
The pilot involves the following clusters: Northern California (University of California-Merced, California State University-Stanislaus, Merced College), Southern California (California State University-Dominguez Hills, Southwest Los Angeles College), Southwest (New Mexico State University, Doña Ana College, NMSU Alamogordo Community College, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso Community College). The clusters are in areas with high concentration of Hispanics. Key leaders share CAHSI’s core purpose to coordinate proven practices, including practices from NSF-funded CREST, AGEP, LSAMP, and REU programs. The clusters provide place-based efforts to make systemic change that considers specific socio-economic and cultural patterns at the institutional, local, and state levels that may need to be considered.
Selena Connealy
This is a great project! I am so glad to see that my state, NM, is part of this important work. I especially like your challenge/mission and the inclusion of the computer-based disciplines: computer science, computer engineering, computational science, data science, statistics and geophysics.
Marjorie Zatz
Graduate Dean & Professor
Selena,
Thanks for your comment and interest! We are excited to be including institutions in Texas, New Mexico and across California, and to include the range of computational sciences, not just computer science.
Brian Drayton
A very engaging presentation! The video mentions "infrastructure" to continue the conversations begun at your "convening." I'd like to know more about that -- it's always a challenge to maintain dialogue that is rich enough to move such an ambitious and complex enterprise forward. Who's communicating, and how? How much of the communication is visible to the community (that is, everyone participating in the partnership activities)? How much work is being done by project staff to facilitate/stimulate/moderate exchanges of ideas, data, documents, or whatever?
Thanks!
Marjorie Zatz
Graduate Dean & Professor
Brian,
We agree that this is a difficult step. We will be using Trellis to help with these conversations. Also everyone who attending the convening was invited to our INCLUDES Conference, held in March in DC (we received INCLUDES design and launch pilot funding and also INCLUDES Conference funding). We will be posting our Proceedings online for anyone interested to read them. That includes 3-5 page white papers from (just about) all program presenters, as well as a literature review. Finally, many of those who attended the convening are also part of our launch pilots, and we are in regular touch with them.
Best,
Marjorie
Andrea Tirres
Interdisciplinary Network Manager
Hi Brian,
For the Southwest Pilot, project staff organizes the meeting agenda which includes designing interactive activities and identifying featured speakers to address themes that have surfaced as major challenges/opportunities. The stakeholders have plenty to discuss, as you would imagine. A big challenges is synthesizing the ideas and information and aligning it to the goals of CAHSI INCLUDES. This is where the leadership team comes in and plays an important function in validation.
Lynn Goldsmith
Distinguished scholar
Thanks so much for sharing your vision of this work. Though your focus is on higher education, I was interested in your calling out conversation about challenges in the K-12 space as well--(how) are you looking to prior educational/computing experiences as you strive to encourage/prepare more Hispanic students for education and possible careers in computational sciences?
I'm also curious about what kinds of work the pilots are undertaking--can you provide a bit more of a taste of what's happening in this year's pilot sites?
Thanks!
Ann Q. Gates
Chair & Proffesor
Some of the work that is being done is centered on mentoring through Mentor-Net, math pathways, the transition from 2-year colleges to 4-year colleges (in particular addressing dual-credit programs), and professional development workshops (development and delivery). CAHSI has been involved with the Girls Collaborative, NCWIT, Google's Ignite CS and CS4HS, and other programs in our K-12 efforts. NMSU has been our lead on K-12.
Albert Byers
Sr. Director, Research and Innovation
A well done video from a production POV and a well articulated message for a most worthwhile goal...onward and upward!
I too resonate with both Brian's and Lynn's comments...how do you take the catalytic energy so evident in the convening and propel that forward, or leverage it to amplify efforts across so many institutions? Perhaps you all indeed "bound and ground" the next steps in achievable and incremental milestones... as the video shared your discussion on spheres of influence and goal setting?
The K12 area is of high interest to me as well and I look forward to learning more there too!
Ann Q. Gates
Chair & Proffesor
CAHSI has over 12 years experience of collaborating with Hispanic-Serving Institutions across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. We hold face-to-face meetings in which we bring together administrators, faculty, economic development organizations, industry partners, and non-profits to discuss the challenges and actions that we are taking to address the challenges. The meetings are more local/regional and national through an All-Hands meeting. We define actions with timelines and have found that personal contact (video conferencing, telephone, and face-to-face meetings) is essential to establishing strong relationships.
Albert Byers
Anne Gold
Research Faculty
Well done video and a compelling project. It sounds like you have a great group of partners assembled to identify challenges and barriers along the way and brainstorm concrete solutions. I am personally very interested in ways to build confidence in students and change the climate that is necessary to feel included and part of a program. what are your steps to addressing challenges in the climate?
Ann Q. Gates
Chair & Proffesor
One of the CAHSI models is the Affinity Research Group model that focuses on the deliberate development of students' skills--communication, team, technical, and professional skills. The model is built upon cooperative team elements. The training helps faculty learn about and incorporate the elements in how they work with students whether it's through research, course activities, or co-curricular activities. This is one of the examples of what we have done to build confidence and impact climate.
Marjorie Zatz
Graduate Dean & Professor
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your interest in our project. One of the issues we stress is the importance of administrative buy-in, precisely so that there can be change at the institutional level. Each of our pilots includes faculty and administrators from different types of institutions. We also think our stress on multiple mentors helps, and in providing opportunities for faculty across institutions to work together so they have support and can leverage what others are doing.
Best regards,
Marjorie
Andrea Tirres
Interdisciplinary Network Manager
Given the amount of information and ideas generated at the Convening, Conference, and regional pilot meetings, it has been extremely useful to identify point people that regional stakeholders can directly communicate with on action items pursued, opportunities that would be of interest to many stakeholders, and interest in connecting with potential partners. These point people help disseminate information and bridge networks and opportunities not only within the regional pilot, but over the entire geographic reach of CAHSI INCLUDES. We have seen that investing time in one-to-one phone conversations (and to a lesser degree, email communication) with stakeholders yields more dynamic dialogue than relying on group email exchanges.
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.