Hi Jay and thank you for visiting our video and posing these questions. We are excited to share our project! The SIUE GEOPATHS project has 21 students, one above our original planned cohort size. We are in the third year of the project. As you might guess, some of our activities were delayed because of the pandemic. For example, we planned to take students on two summer field excursions--storm chasing and geology of the U.S Western National Parks, but had to delay this activity by one year. So our first cohort, featured in the video, did the field excursions last summer and our second cohort is preparing to go this summer. We have also been able to add a third field excursion in summer 2022--a trip to learn about volcanic and other environmental hazards in El Salvador, which is leaving this Sunday! This excursion includes students from both cohorts.

Here are some specific comments to respond to your questions:

1) As a regional university of modest size, we do not have a geology/geoscience department. However, we do have faculty geologists, meteorologists/climatologists, and geomorphologists scattered across different departments. So one of our key goals for this project was to provide extra-curricular activities that really highlight career options in geology, climatology, and earth and environmental science. The undergraduate students are getting experiences through field excursions, research, and seminars that would not otherwise be available to them. SIUE does offer an introductory earth science course that enrolls about 200 students a semester, but most students use this to fulfill general education requirements rather than as entry into a geoscience-related degree.

2) Any science-interested student is eligible to apply for the GEOPATHS program, and we aimed to select students who expressed curiosity about geosciences but did not necessarily know much about it. We have data to show that a very small fraction of Illinois high school students indicate geosciences as an intended major, so as at many U.S. institutions, geoscience career awareness among our university freshmen and sophomores is low. Since the students have entered our GEOPATHS program when they are sophomores, we are now just starting to see career intentions and outcomes for the graduating scholars. One has entered geoscience graduate school, one is accepted to graduate school, one is interviewing with the US Geological Survey, one is a water quality intern, and one of our most recent graduates specifically mentioned GEOPATHS as impactful. So we think the track record so far is good!

We are interviewing and administering surveys regularly to collect data to determine if and how GEOPATHS has and is having an impact. We are using Mica Estrada's model of social influence to explore changes over time in scholars' self-efficacy, geoscience identity, and sense of belonging. As scholars graduate, we will be able to improve our understanding of the program's impacts and the relevance of the model.

3) I love this question! The students are very inspiring and very curious. Especially during the field excursions, when we have extended time together, they share their college experiences with each other and they ask the faculty about their personal and career pathways. The faculty enjoyed the project so much that we submitted a proposal for scholarship funds through the NSF S-STEM program and happily were successful. This new project will provide scholarships for graduate students studying watershed sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective and include a new course on sustainable watersheds that could be taught by any GEOPATHS faculty. So, I do think the faculty are more attuned to the value of interdisciplinarity. We hope that GEOPATHS scholars will consider applying for an NSF S-STEM scholarship to continue their geoscience-focused education.

Thank you for your questions and please let me know if additional information would be helpful.

Sharon, Thanks very much for your thoughtful responses to my questions. This is really a great opportunity for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. And the fact that you have geoscientists embedded in other departments makes the opportunities for collaboration, integration, and connections that much more doable.

Thank you for your wonderful questions. As a former undergraduate scholar, and now a graduate research assistant on the program, I feel uniquely equipped to help answer your questions.

The summer programming, which includes our storm chasing experience, national parks tours, and (this summer) El Salvador research exchange, are all intended to promote education, inclusion, and identity. Professors with a wide range of backgrounds attend these trips and constantly inform students on the wonderful world of geoscience around them.

For example, we visited half a dozen national parks last summer and learned about geologic formations from Dr. Sharon Locke and hydrologic processes from Dr. Shunfu Hu. We even had a qualified astronomer guide us through multiple nights of 'dark sky' stargazing. There is a bit of magic about these kinds of in the field experiences that we hope encourage scholars to see that geoscience is all around them, and geoscience professionals have a broad range of experience and career options. Scholars are also offered multiple seminars and question-and-answer sessions with geoscience professionals and educators every semester.

To answer your second question, we are gauging scholars' sense of geoscience identity and inclusion through qualitative coding of guided interviews and structured online surveys. Scholars begin the interview and survey process when they enter the program, and due to the mutli-year nature of their participation, we are able to check in with them over multiple semesters to gather this data.

We are also measuring sholars' participation in extra-curricular education programs we offer, such as FAA Drone Small-UAV part 107 certification and HAZWOPER certification programs. These are offered to students free-of-charge.

Hope this helps! Please reply with any follow-up questions!

Our GeoPATHs program here at SIUE is specifically tailored to undergraduate students and programming. The recruiting process is broad, but scholars who apply should:

1. Demonstrate a willingness to work as an undergraduate researcher and extracurricular learner.

2. Have interest in working with graduate students or faculty mentors.

3. Have at least 5 semesters left in their time as an undergraduate.

This last recommendation is flexible. It is intended to ensure the scholars have enough time to take advantage of all of the financial and educational resources the program makes available to them.

To answer your other questions, the research that undergraduates take on is very diverse. I myself worked as a field assistant for a graduate thesis on logjams, as well as a literature reviewer / compiler for a geography professor.

These undergraduates are compensated through the program for their time working towards their own projects, or working with grad students or faculty mentors. We typically have a number of hours-per-week needed to qualify for the full program stipend, but have adjusted the stipend to meet students with the amount of hours they can commit to on any given semester.

Students are also compensated by way of extracurricular education and certification programs. For instance, the program payed for me to take my FAA small UAV drone license certification test, after providing funding for me to attend a class on the test material.

Hello Logan,

Thanks for replying to my comment. Do you provide some Profession Development for your UG researchers/participants on how to negotiate and perhaps understand the social and political equities of the STEM and research field? Possible instructional modules about understanding "institutional power," how to advocate one's cultural/personal wealth, and how to network in STEM/research disciplines could be vital in helping diverse students find richness in their unique STEM careers.

Cheers,

Anne