Welcome, and thank you for viewing our video. As part of the NSF INCLUDES initiative, we have started to build a regional collaborative made up of 4-year and 2-year institutions in order to support improved outcomes for STEM students in our Southern California region by providing training, networks, and pathways for those interested in a career at a community college. With this foundation we also hope to work as a network to identify the types of data-sharing, resources, events, and relationships that can help us to truly address outcomes as a collective group rather than as individual institutions. Similar work is also happening in Texas and Iowa so that we can distinguish between unique regional needs while also leveraging national resources that could benefit everyone. Please share your thoughts, comments, and questions!

Wow, what an important undertaking and unique “niche” to improve the potential for future faculty working in STEM fields at community colleges for under-served and underrepresented groups. Not only are you tackling southern CA, but you are also looking for regional variations and needs with partnerships in Iowa and Texas.  Kudos!

As I read your abstract and watched the video a couple questions came to mind that I think would greatly inform our viewership over this week, and the year beyond:

 

--One of your projects goals is to explore how best to collaborate between 4 and 2 year colleges for this “pipeline” focus of future faculty. You reference the term “Collective Impact Framework.” Might you expand on what the framework is and how it is guiding your efforts?

 

--I appreciate the surveys, and potential large volume of data collection you are undertaking across so many varied institutions (as a collective group). Are there methods for examining the data exhaust from all this “big data” analytics, and might you share if you’ve already discerned what approaches you are finding that most benefit community college faculty? Are you finding any early results of differences between southern CA, Iowa and Texas?

 

--You state in your video that you are learning about the community college culture, and uncovering some existing models and resources to aid in your overall goals for this effort. Might you share a little about any nuances you are finding about the community college culture (e.g., how is it different than you thought or anticipated), and talk about maybe one model you found out there that is showing promise?

Jessica

Wow, what an awesome and thorough response...and so prompt! Thank you for providing the additional URLs for those that desire to dig deeper! I think the notion of CC mentors in addition to an advisor and combating those false "stigmas" about teaching compared to research are right on target and may go a long way to help reach your goals. Personal beliefs are deeply seated, resistant to change, while attitudes vary over time, context and may not be reflective of long-held beliefs! You are hitting on all cylinders in my book--keep up the good work--early on I understand in your effort!

Hi Jessica - interesting project! I think we might have some potential points of collaboration with you. Our project: EarthConnections: Community Pathways to Geoscience Careers also has a video here and one of our regional pilots is based in San Bernardino. This pilot in particular is looking to link high school, 2Y and 4Y colleges to expose students to geoscience career pathways *and* also has a professional development component for faculty. I'd love to hear your thoughts on potential for sharing ideas and information.  

I'm also with the Earth Connections project, and wonder if you could tell us a little more about the faculty survey you have developed. As Donna commented, there might be potential opportunities for collaboration with our San Bernardino Regional Pilot.

It's so great to see people making connections and learning from each other! Here's another possible one (wrapped in a question): I'm curious about how the model for collective impact is "impacting" your early work in terms of building partnerships and a shared vision. I'd be quite interested in whether you're developing tools and/or structures to help you with your work; the Research + Practice Collaboratory  is a project that isn't using a collective impact model, but is developing and studying research/practitioner partnerships. As part of their work, they have developed, and are now sharing, a number of tools that are available on their website. They also have a video here.

Could you also tell us more about the role that the backbone organization will play in your project?

Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your initial work in this video. Looks like you have built important partnerships in the southern CA area. I am co-directing a REU program that focuses on community college students and we bring them to CU Boulder an R-1 four year university to work with mentors over the summer to immerse the CC students in authentic research experiences. We have very mixed applicant pools and feel that we would like to support students in growing into stronger applicants. Do you have suggestions from your initial work of how to support students and faculty at CC to prepare for a summer research experience? 

Hi Anne-

Thanks for your question. I do not believe UCLA currently has a similar program for CC students so I am not sure that I can give you the best answer, however my suggestion would be to see how you can best work with the CU Boulder faculty to identify the prerequisite skills/knowledge they are expecting the students to have when they apply. If possible, perhaps those faculty could assist in the development of learning materials such as videos and activities that could be shared with the CC faculty to use in their courses (or even better to collaborate with the CC faculty to develop the materials jointly). Of course this is time consuming, so perhaps it could be part of a grant or project for a DBER fellow or instructor interested in assessing the effectiveness of such an approach?If not part of a course, perhaps the activities could be done in a multi-day workshop or conference for students who then go on to apply for the summer experience. Would these suggestions be possible/helpful for your needs?