A Unique Approach to Diversifying the STEM Pipeline: Creating a STEM Center Despite Funding, Faculty Support and Engagement Challenges

Increasing the representation of underrepresented students in STEM is an admirable goal, but it often faces obstacles when it comes to developing a model that can effectively boost diversity among K-12 and undergraduate students. This proposal offers recommendations for institutional leaders and practitioners on how to secure faculty buy-in, funding, and administrative support for a STEM Center that focuses on diversifying the STEM pipeline. The STEM Center for Outreach, Research, and Education (STEM CORE) at Texas Tech University, which is primarily a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), is described, including its origins, development, iterations, impact, and future direction. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) is used as a theoretical framework to emphasizes the reciprocal interactions between individuals, their environment, and their behavior, and posits that individuals could learn and develop new behaviors through observation and modeling. To create a STEM center using SCT, steps such as establishing a supportive learning environment, using modeling and observation, providing hands-on experiences, fostering self-efficacy, encouraging positive feedback and reinforcement, and using technology can be taken. The purpose of this proposal is to demonstrate how the development of a STEM center can promote diversity, persistence, and representation within STEM fields for K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty. This presentation suggests various ways to gain institutional support and enthusiasm for developing a STEM Center, such as prioritizing K-12, community, and faculty needs, using faculty advocacy for continuous support, leveraging faculty research grants to support programs, engaging with undergraduate students to understand their needs, and developing programs to serve K-12 students, undergraduate students, faculty, and the community simultaneously.