2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Writing as an URM STEM Community: Increasing Competitiveness and Success of Underrepresented Minority STEM Pre-tenure Faculty and Postdoctoral Researchers through Community Grant and Other Academic Writing Experiences

Presented at Continuing Professional Development Division (CPD) Technical Session 1

During STEM Ph.D. studies, most dissertators are focused on conducting research, taking exams, and producing writing necessary for their graduation. Besides experiences in teaching and mentoring, to be competitive and successful in academic positions beyond the Ph.D. degree, participants must also demonstrate successful grantsmanship and research-related manuscript production in their portfolio.

This paper shares the experiences over the course of three years from one AGEP Alliance and its cohort members (participants who began the program as Ph.D. candidates) as they participated in weekly writing sessions as a cohort, and demonstrates the benefits of writing in community as a mode of faculty professional development for underrepresented scholars.
These weekly writing sessions started with an alternating focus on grant writing and academic job application packages. Each session began with a formal introduction to a key component to that week’s focus, followed by goal setting for the writing portion of the session. Participants would work on relevant funding opportunities or specific job postings. In the second year, as the cohort members progressed at different paces and paths towards their academic career goals, the writing sessions became more informal, targeting individual needs. Weekly writing sessions captured writing for grants, research manuscripts, response to reviewers’ and editor’ comments, cover letters, teaching/research statements, diversity statements, patent applications and other forms of writing as needed. During the third year, as the cohort members accepted academic positions, the focus shifted to targeted grant writing (specifically including NSF and NIH proposals with early career focus) to increase the resilience and competitiveness of Underrepresented Minority (URM) academics in their current positions and beyond.

The URM cohort members indicated that although the writing sessions were only one hour, getting together as a group and writing as a community was very valuable for them. Even if the progress in the allotted time was limited, the debrief at the close of each one-hour writing session, where participants shared their successes and challenges, helped reinforce a sense of accomplishment. Beyond writing for their own individual needs, working with their URM cohort community – whose common goals and experiences gave them shared purpose and passion – served to motivate, support and boost morale for most participants.

Authors

Dr. Mehrube Mehrubeoglu http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-5927-8408 Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi [biography]

Dr. Mehrubeoglu received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. She earned an M.S. degree in Bioengineering and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. She is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering as well as Program Coordinator for BS in Electrical Engineering and MS in Engineering programs at the Department of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Her technical research interests lie in applications using hyperspectral, thermal, visible-range imaging systems, and data analytics for image segmentation and classification using classical image processing/pattern recognition, and newer AI and machine learning techniques. She is interested in effective student engagement and learning methods, and mentors many undergraduate students in her labs.
Cherish C. Vance http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8587-7594 The Ohio State University [biography]

Cherish Vance (she/her) is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University. Her research passions include engineering for sustainable development. A first-generation student, she is currently a PhD candidate and has received a Bachelor of Science in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Kimberle Ann Kelly
Janel L Ortiz California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Shawanee' Patrick http://orcid.org/https:// 0000-0002-7887-773X The Ohio State University
Philip Olawale Adebo
David Chimene
Dr. Joseph William Newton Leo Reustle Hampton University Department of Marine and Environmental Science [biography]

Dr. Joe Reustle is a marine ecologist and the PI of the Reustle Estuarine Ecology Lab (REEL) at HU MES. Dr. Reustle’s research investigates species-interactions and how they influence community dynamics and assemblages. Specifically, Dr. Reustle’s research focuses on community-level consequences for shifts in species-interactions due to (1) climate change and environmental perturbations (i.e., drought/flood, high intensity storm-events), (2) changes in predator/parasite field (i.e., reason for and consequences of changes in abundance of predator(s) and parasites), and (3) changes in sensory regime and behavior (i.e., changes in the visual or chemosensory profile; altered fear response to predators and/or parasites). Dr. Reustle’s research intersects with and has expanded into habitat restoration and assessment where Dr. Reustle is interested in restoring habitat and ecosystem services. Dr. Reustle incorporates field and laboratory studies at the species, population, and community level to manipulate and better understand the mechanisms and consequences of changes in community dynamics.

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