Welcome to our page and the 2020 STEM for ALL Video Showcase! Our video - NextGenSTEM: Diverse Researchers Addressing Global Challenges - highlights the impact of the Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM over the last ten years. This project is funded and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) HBCU-UP Program and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The ERN Conference provides undergraduate and graduate student STEM researchers a chance to present their research, hone their science communication skills, and participate in professional development sessions to prepare them for STEM careers and to address global challenges. We would love to hear from past ERN participants regarding the impact of the ERN conference. We would also like to engage with potential partners and collaborators to support our efforts. Please view and vote for our video! For more info on the ERN Conference visit our webpage at https://emerging-researchers.org/.

Thanks from the ERN Conference Team!

Amazing video!

I very much enjoyed this video. The young doctoral students' words clearly showed the importance of seeing oneself in the STEM community of practice.

These early, authentic opportunities to share one's work with the world are transformational! Thank you for your hard work in making it happen.

Thank you so much, Lisa.  Each year, the ERN conference provides a new opportunity for students to have this transformational experience.  We are really honored that we have been able to do this for 10 years!

Brava Iris and the ERN community! The energy of collegial conferences is powerful.  Are there efforts to build a lasting community among the attendees and speakers?  Is there a Facebook, LinkedIn or other effort to allow participants to stay in touch?  Are you able to track career paths of the participants?  How many move into faculty or STEM professions?  Do any of them try to replicate this effort on a more localized scale?  How can one pay it forward?

Hi Patti, thank you for the kind words and follow-up questions.  We are certainly reaching out to our ERN community and others who are interested in learning more about the conference via our social media platforms.  We are active on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

In addition to our social media sharing, we have virtual engagements, such as webinars, throughout the year, and we disseminate information and resources via our website, https://emerging-researchers.org/, as well.

The current COVID-19 health crisis has created challenges for many of our students who are working on their research at their institution, therefore we are developing a webinar series to support our ERN students during this COVID-19 pandemic. Our first webinar of the series was held on April 30, 2020, and can be viewed here, Thriving While Adapting to Change.

As for the longitudinal tracking of students, we are tracking students over the last 10 years via our internal and external evaluation and will share that via a publication early next year.

Lastly, we see the opportunity for one to pay it forward by assisting students in their network with developing skills critical to preparing them as STEM leaders, sharing their STEM journey, and serving as role models and mentors.

Thank you for this video; it was great to hear the voices of these emerging researchers. 

I'm curious about the nature of the connections you are making between students and mentors at the conference and beyond. Is it important that you match people by geography, or by scientific discipline, or by some other shared experience? What do you think about as you work to support students?

Hi Marjorie, thank you for the kind words for our video and for your question about mentoring.  We do value the role that mentors have with our ERN student participants, therefore we express to the students that the ERN meeting provides many opportunities to network and potentially identify mentors.  We do this in the following ways:

1. Students are able to engage with professionals via the judges, workshop facilitators, plenary speakers and their peers while at the conference and during our virtual webinar. The engagement between students and STEM experts within their fields and across disciplines facilitate mentoring opportunities. 

2. We also do sessions at ERN on strategic networking, how to find a mentor, and leveraging peer to peer role models.

Additionally, we know from the research that there are different types of mentoring and mentors.  Students definitely benefit from mentors within their disciplines, those individuals are able to give them insight on their field and advice on education and career paths specific to their field.  However, we also know the importance of having other types of support outside of their discipline.  The ERN conference is part of a current grant titled, "Preparing Diverse Researchers to Address Global Challenges", where we provide different levels of support to assist students with not only educational and career goals, but also developing STEM identity and a sense of belonging in STEM.  

Hi Iris,

Thanks for posting the ERN video, very inspiring and a resource to the STEM community.

Loved learning about the great impact of this work, Iris!

Thank you so much!

This is an amazing video!!!! The ERN conference provides an excellent opportunity for HBCU undergraduate students to present their research findings. 

Great video and project. I enjoyed hearing the voices of these emerging researchers. 

As the program officer at NSF for the ERN Conference Award, I want to say how proud I am of Iris Wagstaff, Shirley Malcom, previously Yolanda George, and others at AAAS of this event and what it has accomplished during the last 10 years in preparing future STEM leaders. I do not see students as human capital, but as individuals with goals and ambitions and dreams. It is our collective responsibility to nurture them and give them all they need to grow and thrive in this world of STEM that is not always equally welcoming to all.

Very nice video. Thank you for all the hard work and effort. Sincerely.

Great video Iris and KUDOS to the entire ERN team. You all are doing excellent work!

Your video emotionally captures the transformative power of the ERN conference to empower student researchers! Having attended a couple ERNs, I wish I had been able to have such a meaningful, inspiring research development experience as a student and hope you will continue to reach even more students in the future.

Congratulation, Iris on a job well done.  I am glad our students have a place they can go to receive the strength to continue their research and become the next STEM leaders in their area.

Thank you for this video. I appreciate how participants are being engaged to build capital and expertise in a core practice of the scientific community. Can you share a little about how mentors are trained to work with the scholars? Also, do scholars participate in the conference annually or are there other activities throughout the year as scaffolding for this important work?

Hi Jameela,

Thank you for your questions about the video.  While the ERN conference offers an opportunity for students to network with and identify potential mentors, we do not formally provide mentors for them, nor do we offer training to mentors ahead of the conference.  However, we do value the role that mentors can have with our ERN student participants, therefore we expose our students to potential mentors in the following ways:

1. Students are able to engage with professionals via the judges, workshop facilitators, plenary speakers and their peers while at the conference and during virtual workshops that occur throughout the year.  The engagement between students and STEM experts within their fields and across disciplines facilitate mentoring opportunities.

2. We offer sessions at ERN on strategic networking, how to find a mentor, and leveraging peer to peer role models.

Regarding the participation of scholars, it is an individual decision for the student and institution if they attend the conference.  A select number of undergraduate and graduate students are able to receive a travel award if their oral or poster presentation on their research is selected to be presented at the conference.  In 10 years, we have been host to approximately ~6,000 student scholars, some who have attended the conference multiple times.  We do offer virtual webinars and post trainings, events and resources on our social media pages throughout the year to continue the engagement with ERN participants.

Serving as a STEM education scholar at an urban-facing university (Virginia Commonwealth University), I so appreciate the importance of this effort helping increase the diversity in STEM research and scholarly efforts of our next generation at the highest level. Thank you for sharing your work with us!

I participated in this conference this year and it was truly enriching. One of the best experiences I have had!

Thanks to initiatives like these, which promote scientific communication, I have been able to develop and currently collaborate with new initiatives such as "Empowering the Next Generation of Women in STEAM Careers", an initiative described in the video we have submitted.

Below I share the link of the video
https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentati...

Thanks to all those who work to make ERN an excellent space to grow personally, professionally and academically.

So well done! You all really captured the essence of the atmosphere at ERN and importance of providing these space and growth opportunities for budding scientists. Great job.

What a fantastic video! After participating in ERN for a number of years I can say that it is absolutely focused on developing the next generation of STEM leaders. Diversity is key to moving science and the world forward and the environment at ERN has always been one of inclusion, acceptance and mentoring. Keep up the good work. As an URM in STEM I truly feel this is a powerful conference for both the students and the mentors.

What a fantastic video! After participating in ERN for a number of years I can say that it is absolutely focused on developing the next generation of STEM leaders. Diversity is key to moving science and the world forward and the environment at ERN has always been one of inclusion, acceptance and mentoring. Keep up the good work. As an URM in STEM I truly feel this is a powerful conference for both the students and the mentors.

Excellent video! Nice job!

Great video!

Awesome conference!! I was able to serve as a judge. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to obtain the experience with presenting their research projects. The video well captured this event!! 

Looking forward to participating in the conference.

This is so amazing! Thank you for providing such quality material and expert speakers!

Thanks so much NeCall! We really appreciate your support!

Thanks so much NeCall! We really appreciate your support!

This video features some diverse voices and shows the value of interconnection of all communities. It is very inspirational and gives hope to underrepresented students and researchers.

This video features some diverse voices and shows the value of interconnection of all communities. It is very inspirational and gives hope to underrepresented students and researchers.

Thanks so much for your comment Francis! We really appreciate it!

This video is a reflection of the excellent work done in preparing STEM students. ERN has impacted and inspired many students and faculty from various communities. I am proud of the work done by Dr. Iris Wagstaff, Dr. Shirley Malcom, and Dr. Yolanda George. ERN made a difference in my life. Thank you for giving ERN your best.

Lovely to see the students' bright faces full of hope and sunshine ...and how the professors and leaders pride in giving their whole to them. Bravo in your diversity! 100% Needs-Supply Fit!

This is wonderful and so very important!

A program that gives amplifies student research and provides them with face-to-face opportunities to work with and learn from professional researchers.  This is great.  And to've worked with over 7K students and over 5K presentations! Wonderful.  Big fan of projects for which the growth of the project is the data about its efficacy! And looking forward to the longitudinal data!

The Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM is an amazing asset to expose students to a world that they may have never seen or even realized that they could belong. The combination of being with other students and also hearing amazing plenary speakers with whom they can identify gives them such positive motivation. The students also benefit from talking with universities recruiting at the conference that help students make plans for next steps and opportunities. As a judge, it has been an incredible and a positive experience for both the students and myself unlike any other I have witnessed. The time, resources, and effort for this conference are definitely a worthwhile investment. It WILL make a constructive difference in these students’ lives.

I have had the privilege to be a judge at the ERN conference for the last ten years. I have seen first hand how much the students benefit from presenting and networking at this conference. It is so rewarding to see student presenters grow from this experience at the conference or by returning the next year to present further research or to mentor others. This is truly a “giving” conference. The pre-conference webinars help students learn how to present a poster or an oral presentation and sets students up for a positive learning experience before they come to the conference. It is the best conference that I have ever attended that encourages growth, learning, and opportunity. The networking, the immediate feedback, and the opportunity for “next steps” become evident as a “bridge” for student learning. Students gain so much by talking with universities and professors in the exhibit hall. Many students are first generation college students, so it is beneficial for them to plan as they learn about grants, other research projects, and higher education goals. The positive outreach provides life-changing moments for students, judges, and participants. The plenary speakers touch hearts through their inspirational messages. Every year, every single year, I leave this conference feeling hope and seeing the power of this conference. One of the best words to describe ERN is “transformational”. I see this at every ERN conference, and I have seen it in myself as I grow along with the students. It has a way of leading all involved in the right direction to further growth and learning.

Tina, thank you for your kind words.  Your sentiment, described above, is why we are honored to host this conference year after year.  The support the students receive from judges (like yourself), speakers, and their peers are so impactful and really are drivers to pushing these students to continue on their STEM pathways.