RCN-UBE: Alaska Undergraduate Research Experience: Partnering for Alaska Students by Growing Recruitment and Retention through Undergraduate Research

Connecting students from diverse backgrounds to place-based research with culturally responsive mentors is one approach for increasing retention in the biological sciences. Alaska is home to 228 federally recognized Alaska Native tribes and includes some of the most diverse institutions in the country. This high level of student diversity is not reflected in the available pool of scientific mentors, which identifies the need to provide culturally responsible mentor training for more Alaskan researchers.

By providing researchers with mentorship training, this project, AK UNiTE, aims to enhance the interest of Alaskan students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, in participating in biological research in academic and other sectors in Alaska. Ultimately, this work is expected to prepare a greater number of Alaskans for STEM careers and transform scientific understanding by incorporating historical and holistic place-based knowledge.

AK UNiTE will undertake three major objectives during its five years of funding. First, multiple cohorts of network members in the Alaska research community will participate in culturally sensitive mentorship training to improve existing research opportunities for Alaskan students. Second, AK UNiTE will work collaboratively with all research-minded stakeholders (undergraduate students, faculty, and non-academic research partners, including state, federal, and tribal agencies) to ensure sustainable communication to define challenges, identify the opportunities, and create conditions to support undergraduate researchers and their mentors.

Regular virtual meetings and forums will provide a platform for the continual evolution of ideas that support current and future cultural mentoring practices in biological research. Finally, researchers will be incentivized to collaborate with faculty to incorporate relevant and appropriate research components into 100- and 200-level introductory science courses.

The project will be assessed annually by a third-party evaluator to ensure progress towards these overarching objectives. Overall, the goal of AK UNiTE is to be a bridge connecting undergraduate Alaskan students with culturally relevant place-based research opportunities and mentorship, thereby increasing retention in the biological sciences.

This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/), and by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, Ethical and Responsible Research Program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.