About

OceanOpportunities is a partnership to develop a new, coordinated strategy by the ocean sciences community to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in ocean science and ocean engineering graduate programs. This strategy was discussed and endorsed at the Fall 2010 Ocean Science Educators Retreat (OSER), hosted by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, D.C. As a follow-up to the OSER meeting, a workshop held in June, 2012 brought together faculty from minority-serving, under-graduate institutions with those who manage ocean science and engineering graduate programs.

The purpose of the June workshop was to build an effective partnership between science, math and engineering faculty at minority-serving institutions and programs, with graduate program administrators who are recruiting students into ocean science and engineering graduate programs. Establishing relations between these two groups is critical to the field because many underrepresented minorities—graduating with a degree in science, engineering, or math—are not always familiar with the graduate and career opportunities available to them in ocean science and engineering.

OceanOpportunities seeks to acquaint underrepresented minority undergraduate students with these opportunities, encouraging students to pursue a graduate degree in ocean science and engineering programs. The partnership aims to promulgate the career and educational possibilities of these programs by supporting institutional-neutral booths at scientific meetings that attract undergraduate students, distributing brochures and other promotional information, supporting a webpage informing potential students of programs and careers in ocean science and ocean engineering fields, and coordinating campus visits by representatives from institutions offering graduate studies in ocean science and engineering to minority-serving colleges and universities. 

List of Partners

Faculty and administrators at the institutions below currently participate.  Other partners are most welcome.

• California State University, Monterey Bay
• City University of New York
• Dillard University
• Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment
• Florida A&M University
• Hampton University
• Howard University
• Humboldt State University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• North Carolina A&T University
• North Carolina Central University
• Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
• Savannah State University
• Spelman College
• Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
• Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, College of Science and Engineering
• Texas A&M University, School of Geosciences
• University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• University of Guam
• University of Hawaii, School of Ocean, Earth Science and Technology
• University of Maine, School of Marine Sciences
• University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography
• University of South Carolina, Marine Science Program
• University of South Florida, College of Marine Science
• University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Marine Science
• University of Washington, School of Oceanography
• Vanderbilt University
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Xavier University, Louisiana