The STEM Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education (PUSH) Network, an NSF INCLUDES Alliance, seeks to leverage the power of precollege STEM programs (PCSPs) to broaden participation of racially/ethnically minoritized students – Black, Latinx and/or Indigenous students – in STEM and, together with its partners, create systemic change in higher education admissions.
Join us to amplify the power of PCSPs and reinvent the relationship between PCSPs and higher education admissions offices!
STEM PUSH integrates a powerful engine for learning and innovation – a networked improvement community (NIC) – with an accreditation component to give PCSPs greater currency in the higher education admissions process. Partners in STEM PUSH benefit from:
Engages urban high school students in rigorous, STEM-centric curricula
In-depth engagement in an out-of-school space (~120 student hours/year).
Explicitly works to improve STEM-college going outcomes for Black, Latinx and/or Indigenous students
Program leaders acknowledge that structural racism exists in K-12+ STEM pathways
Program interested in focusing on equity
Ability to actively participate in the networked improvement community
Dedicated program leader who will attend network meetings (monthly virtual + 2 in-person/year)
Engage in improvement cycles including meetings and learning tasks throughout the year (~40 hours/year)
Agency to make changes to strengthen the program/align with STEM PUSH quality standards (recruitment, program design, assessment, etc.)
Share student data
Supports students in developing knowledge and skills via hands-on, experiential opportunities for learning (e.g., research-based, engineering projects, math intensive)
Exposes young people to STEM professionals, career pathways, and/or college experiences
Established for at least three years
STEM PUSH is looking for established, urban-based, STEM-focused PCSPs with a significant “do” component that work with high school students and are committed to increasing equity in STEM undergraduate study.
This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. It is also co-funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program and the Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program (AISL).
