The White House has listed the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE AGEP for Maryland, along with the University System of Maryland’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program (USM LSAMP), among organizations in the U.S. that have a commitment to the new MBK STEM + Entrepreneurship track for the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. This new MBK STEM + Entrepreneurship track includes commitments that will contribute to expanding STEM opportunities to populations that are underrepresented in these fields. PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation, is an NSF AGEP-T program, led by founding partners: The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore. In 2013, the alliance expanded to include all of the institutions within the University System of Maryland. The alliance also includes partnerships with the Community Colleges of Baltimore County (CCBC), Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), and the Ana G. Mendez University Capital Campus. The USM LSAMP program for undergraduate students is led by UMBC as part of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and has as partners LSAMP programs at the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The PROMISE AGEP is working with the University System of Maryland to further develop pipeline initiatives that will increase the functionality of professional development services for undergraduates and post-graduate students within the system.

50+ Articles and Tools

The PROMISE AGEP for the University System of Maryland has been noted for its dissemination of materials related to STEM equity and inclusion opportunities in higher education. The PROMISE AGEP has contributed to more than 50 publications and tools, including the PROMISE journal article published by Academic Medicine, and the PROMISE booklet highlighting 10 years of professional development workshops. These resources and others, such as PROMISE articles that have been published by the American Society for Engineering Education and an extension to the conversation on minority doctoral attrition by Council of Graduate Schools, have been used to guide other STEM diversity programs for graduate students at  schools such as Purdue and Cornell. The PROMISE AGEP also serves in advisory capacities for other AGEPs around the U.S.

The PROMISE MBK STEM+ Commitment

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/22/fact-sheet-my-brothers-keeper-%E2%80%93-two-years-expanding-opportunity-creating

100+ Presentations, and 500,000+ annual reach on social media

The PROMISE AGEP, along with the USM LSAMP, continue to commit to disseminating best practices to increase the pipeline and chart new pathways for underrepresented populations to have access to STEM careers. To date, promising practices from USM efforts to increase diversity in STEM have been shared in more than 100 presentations, both in the U.S. and abroad. Further, through social media avenues such as the PROMISE website, online access to the 2015 USM LSAMP Impact Report, PROMISE on Google+, and the PROMISE Director’s Twitter site, there have been more than 500,000 hits, views, and impressions. Additional social media sites that participate in significant dissemination include (but are not limited to) the general PROMISE Facebook page, the Facebook page for PROMISE at the University of Maryland College Park, the website for PROMISE at the University of Maryland Baltimore, the PROMISE Dissertation House page, the PROMISE Tumblr page, and PROMISE on YouTube.

The NSF USM PROMISE AGEP, along with the NSF USM LSAMP, will honor the commitment to contribute to the broadening participation efforts of the White House’s MBK STEM+ Entrepreneurship initiative with development and dissemination of best practices for inclusive STEM career access, preparation, retention, and advancement.

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The PROMISE AGEP appreciates working in partnership with programs such as the NIH Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program at UMBC and UMB, the Office of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Maryland College Park, McNair programs, the Southern Regional Education Board’s Institute for Teaching and Mentoring, and other programs at NSF such as ADVANCE, CREST, and Engineering Research Centers.