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| Enlarge ImageFive students did research internships this summer at WHOI in the new Partnership
Education Program (PEP) to encourage underrepresented groups into the fields of ocean and environmental sciences (left to right):
Sanya Compton (Savannah State University), Zak Balmuth-Loris (Syracuse University), Adrienne George (Delaware State University), Shamgan Perkins
(Savannah State University), and Melissa Pinard (Morgan State University).
(Photo courtesy of George Liles and Ambrose Jearld, Jr., NEFSC) |
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| Enlarge ImagePEP student Shamgan Perkins (right) chats with Dr. Ambrose Jearld, Jr., director of the PEP program and education coordinator at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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| Enlarge ImagePEP student Melissa Pinard talks with George Liles, director of the Woods Hole Aquarium and PEP program coordinator, at the Sea Education Association campus on the day students gave their final presentations.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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| Enlarge ImageAdrienne George, a recent graduate of Delaware State University, interned this summer in WHOI biologist Lauren Mullineaux's lab, identifying creatures collected at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. George will enter graduate school in biological oceanography this fall.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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| Enlarge ImageWHOI geophysicist Jian Lin (left) helped plan the 2009 PEP program, a collaboration of six Woods Hole science and education institutions. "Our workforce needs to reflect the U.S. demographic makeup," he said. He is seated next to WHOI engineer Sheri White at a meeting of the WHOI Diversity Committee.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
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The
statistics are stark: From 1973 to 2003, only 313 Hispanic Americans, 135
African Americans, and 49 Native Americans earned Ph.D. degrees in geosciences. That’s a sprinkle in the ocean compared with the more than 21,000 people in that
time span who received Ph.D.’s in geosciences.
The dearth
of minorities in the fields, which includes earth, ocean and atmospheric
science, was reported in a 2005 American Geophysical Union study. But it was
old news to the community of geosciences research institutions remarkably congregated
in Woods Hole, Mass. In 2004, the leaders of six institutions—the NOAA
Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Marine Biological
Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), and Sea Education
Association (SEA)—pledged to work together to attract and retain a more diverse
workforce.
This summer,
they coordinated a new program that specifically encourages underrepresented groups, and brought 16 science students from
11 colleges to Woods Hole for a four-week course on environmental and ocean
science taught by scientists from all the institutions. Then the students
continued on, doing research internships with Woods Hole scientists.
“There’s no
other model for this program, because there’s not another Woods Hole anywhere,”
said Ambrose Jearld of NEFSC, who heads the advisory committee for the Woods
Hole Science Community Diversity Initiative signed in 2004. “We have six
institutions, all very different: small and big, government and private,
aquatic and other environmental. It’s a unique community.”
A
subcommittee led by NEFSC’s George Liles, aquarium director of the Woods Hole
Aquarium, worked for a year to design what is now the Partnership Education Program,
or PEP. “Consciously deciding to be diverse is hard to do,” he said. “Our
program is really unusual. I’m not aware of any other program where such
diverse institutions came together to do this.”
“I call it a
stone soup program,” said Liles, recalling the folk tale of travelers who put a
stone in a pot of boiling water and persuade villagers one by one to throw in
nourishing and delicious ingredients.
NEFSC and NOAA contributed the majority of funding for PEP.
Ben Gutierrez of USGS recruited scientists and organized the course. WHOI
contributed housing and time for the PEP students to take a field trip on its
coastal vessel Tioga. WHOI also welcomed
PEP students to participate in seminars and events in WHOI’s annual Summer
Student Fellowship program for undergraduates. SEA provided housing, care, and
classroom space. Scientists from all institutions acted as mentors, hosting PEP
students in their labs. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a
historically black college, and the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative
Science Center helped design the course and arrange college credit for students.
Planting
seed for homegrown talent
“Minority students tend to avoid degree programs in the
ocean sciences and related fields for several reasons,” said Benjamin Cuker, a
professor at Hampton University in Virginia, one of the first universities to develop marine
science programs for underrepresented group. In a 2006 article in Marine Technology, he wrote, “These
students often get little exposure to these fields and lack role models whom
they might emulate. Too many of these students also lack the kindergarten
through grade 12 preparation needed to be successful as an undergraduate science
major.”
With all
minority groups combined expected to outnumber non-minority groups in the U.S. by
2050, “it is important for the health of ocean science in the United States to
diversify; our workforce needs to reflect the U.S. demographic makeup,” said
Jian Lin, a WHOI geophysicist and a member of the diversity advisory committee. “We
can’t continue to do business as usual, because if we keep doing things the traditional
way, things won’t change. It became obvious we must do something together, and we must take an innovative
approach.”
The
innovative approach began with implementing nontraditional selection criteria
for the program. “Not all students have equal opportunities, so by the time
they apply, they have different levels of preparation,” Lin said. “We created a
new opportunity for very bright
students who didn’t have the same opportunities.”
The new
tactic also meant going to the students and their colleges to recruit for the
fledgling program. “We were very fortunate to have Ambrose, who has been
involved for years in large networks of underrepresented communities, and he
personally contacted people,” Lin said.
Jearld, who
is African American, especially advocated for the idea of a “critical mass” of
students: “We needed to find a way to bring numbers of students here at one
time—to share the joy and pain of the experience,” he said. “In these students,
there’s a spark of interest in science. Why could we not keep them engaged and
help them find a life in science that they can be comfortable with?
“We need
homegrown talent, and we don’t want to miss that talent, ” Jearld said. “Part
of our goal is providing experiences that help them to feel good about their
choices … and to make Woods Hole a welcoming environment.”
Scientific summers at WHOI
Five PEP
student interned at WHOI. Shamgan Perkins, a Savannah State University senior
interested in meteorology, and Zak Balmuth-Loris, a Syracuse University
bioengineering student, plunged right in.
“We left as
soon as we started for eight days on the Kathy
Marie to Georges Bank,” Perkins said.
Interning with WHOI biologist Scott Gallager, they did six-hour shifts towing HabCam,
a camera system for imaging the seafloor and monitoring scallop populations.
“It was a
great experience to do hands-on work on the boat,” Balmuth-Loris said. The two
also identified swimming fish in real-time images from Gallager’s underwater PLUTO camera system off Panama.
Other
students did laboratory-based research. Melissa Pinard, a chemistry major at
Morgan State University, worked with WHOI scientist Anne Cohen to culture
live bay scallop larvae under high levels of carbon dioxide, which creates more
acidic seawater. “I grew shellfish larvae for 72 hours under different CO2
levels and measured differences in the development of their larval shell,” she
said.
“You have to
be open-minded,” Pinard said. “Science is interesting. Any field you get into,
once you find your niche, you can learn a lot. I’ve never done anything with
ocean acidification before, but not only do I like what I’m doing, but what I’m
learning about why I’m doing it is
also interesting, and I think it’s important that other people become aware of
what’s going on in the world around them.”
Research
internships can help you find out what you like—and what you don’t, said
Adrienne George, a recent graduate of Delaware State University. She enjoyed
working with WHOI biologist Lauren Mullineaux to identify and compare animals
collected from two deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites, which required examining preserved
samples under a microscope.
“This
project has been entirely in the lab, and I’ve found I’m much more of a field
person,” she said. “I’m learning what I like to do in science, and I like
working with live animals. It’s better to have experiences you don’t enjoy as
much, and learn from them.” George will enter graduate school to study biological
oceanography.
Sanya
Compton, a recent graduate from Savannah State, didn’t work with samples,
animals, or boats at all, but with Porter Hoagland in the WHOI Marine Policy
Center on a survey to help create a model to predict the economic impacts of
sea level rise in Massachusetts.
“My part is
to develop a survey for property owners, to gather qualitative data for a
model,” she said. “I like the idea of using my science to work with people, to
look at whether science is really impacting society.”
The PEP
committee hopes to continue the program and hopes these students will share
their experiences with their peers and spread the word about science in Woods
Hole.
“We [Woods
Hole science institutions] have always been leaders, and leaders have to think
ahead,” Lin said. “We hope to run the program for at least 20 years—a whole
generation. It is worth the investment, because there is an urgent societal need. It’s
an honor to work on it, because we are working toward an important goal, and we
hope more people would join us on this journey.”
—Kate Madin
Posted: August 21, 2009 [top] |
