UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The geosciences lag other STEM fields when it comes to racial and ethnic representation. A two-year, $295,000 grant from the National Science Foundation aims to address this issue by encouraging more Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students to pursue research and careers in the geosciences.
The project, titled “AAPI in Geoscience: Inclusivity, Leadership, and Experience” (AGILE), is a collaboration between eight different institutions and is led by Daniel Ibarra, assistant professor at Brown University, and Kimberly Lau, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State. Through innovative and collaborative programs and events, AGILE aims to improve awareness of the geosciences among AAPI undergraduate students and cultivate a national network of mentors that will boost AAPI participation in geoscience graduate programs and careers.
“The earth and environmental sciences impact every person on our planet in some way, and so it’s a priority that our field is as inclusive as possible,” Lau said. “Who gets to become a geoscientist is a topic that the community has been focusing on. Through this project, we aim to provide more exposure to the earth and environmental sciences, as well as create new opportunities for AAPI undergraduates to learn about how they can make an impact.”
The grant funds a number of new initiatives, including a pilot research visit program that will support short visits by faculty, graduate students and other scientists to AAPI-serving institutions to bring awareness of geoscience careers and graduate programs to AAPI students. The project also includes career development events and workshops, and an undergraduate research internship program, directed by Lau, that will connect undergraduate students with meaningful geoscience research and learning opportunities.
“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, who themselves have different challenges and paths into STEM and the geosciences, encounter issues unique from other underrepresented minority groups,” Lau said. “There are quite a few AAPI students in STEM fields, but they don’t necessarily realize that the geosciences and related fields are viable career options to consider. The research internship program is meant to provide opportunities specific to Asian American and Pacific Islander students to do research at the undergraduate level.”
There are quite a few research internship opportunities targeted toward underrepresented minorities, but Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders do not technically fall under that umbrella, Lau said. She and her collaborators see AGILE’s research internship program as a means of filling this need for AAPI students who may not feel like they have these opportunities elsewhere.
The project plans to expose as many as 1,000 undergraduates across the country to geoscience research and careers, establish a new research internship opportunity and create national cross-career connections between AAPI geoscientists in diversity and inclusion discussions.
“We AAPI geoscientists don't typically discuss issues of identity, despite the fact that AAPI representation in the geosciences lags far behind other STEM fields and national demographics," said Ibarra. “This is an opportunity to highlight AAPI scientists who have pursued careers in geosciences and create a framework for them to give back to undergraduates at AAPI-serving institutions, creating a cross-career network of support, which is pretty exciting.”
AGILE will conclude with a workshop to help AAPI graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty gain more tools to be better diversity, equity and inclusion advocates in their departments and organizations.
Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science and Penn State’s Department of Geosciences will lead the project. Ibarra, the lead principal investigator, is an isotope geochemist and paleoclimatologist. He is a Filipino American with a commitment to diversifying academia. Lau, the project’s co-lead principal investigator, is an isotope geochemist and paleoceanographer. She is Chinese American.
The team also includes David Ho, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa; Sora Kim, University of California, Merced; Sonya Legg, Princeton University; Randye Rutberg, CUNY Hunter College; Jessica Wang, Bellevue College; and Sam Ying, University of California, Riverside. The majority of the principal investigators on the project identify as AAPI and are associated with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (AAPIiG), a grassroots, member-driven organization founded by Ibarra, Lau, and Christine Y. Chen, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in 2020. AAPIiG is committed to building a community that supports AAPIs in the geosciences.