Securing Private and Federal Partnerships to Support Undergraduate Geoscience Workforce Internships for Minorities

In the report, Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates 2017, Wilson (2017) stated that only 40% of the Bachelor degree graduates have had a geoscience internship experience before graduation. Internships are known to provide undergraduates with the skills, competencies, and work experience critical for the geoscience labor force. In order to broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities and to pipeline them into the geoscience workforce, institutional partnerships with private and federal sectors need to be established; this experience will help bolster the chances of future employment. The more engagement, collaboration, and experience the students have at these agencies and private sector entities, the more marketable and prepared they will be. Through a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education GEOPATH grant (ICER #1801563), a geoscience workforce program for non-geoscience STEM majors has been developed. As the expansion and establishment of partnerships with local federal agencies and the private sector continue to progress, the underrepresented minority students in the program continue to be gainfully employed within the geoscience workforce. Results from these partnerships will be presented.