Building Bridges: How the Southeast is Increasing the Representation of Students with Disabilities in STEM (Abstract Only)

As part of the new and bold NSF INCLUDES initiative, we introduce the SouthEast Alliance for Persons with Disabilities in STEM (SEAPD-STEM) whose goal is to increase the representation of students and faculty with disabilities in all STEM fields. The SEAPD-STEM is an alliance consisting of 22 higher ed institutions including community colleges, four-year institutions, and universities with graduate programs. The primary methodology utilized by the SEAPD-STEM is to build bridges of support and mentorship between various levels of academia: in undergraduate institutions, upperclassmen will support lowerclassmen; graduate students will support upperclassmen; junior faculty will mentor graduate students; and senior faculty will mentor junior faculty. Moreover, there will be bridges from undergraduate/graduate to the workplace aiming to assist persons with disabilities in acquiring a position working in a STEM field. This poster presents how the bridges are formed in addition to preliminary data including statistics concerning students with disabilities studying STEM fields, professors with disabilities in STEM, and survey data completed by intervention participants. In total, there are 19 proposed interventions to be implemented including Saturday and Summer academies, research experiences, GRE prep workshops, and various levels of mentoring/advising from high school to workforce. It is the intention of the SEAPD-STEM to increase the alliance each year in order to reach as many students with disabilities as possible.