“Lighting the Pathway to Faculty Careers for Natives in STEM” is a bold and innovative new initiative to address the persistent underrepresentation of Indigenous people in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty positions at U.S. colleges and universities. This five-year pilot project, funded by the National Science Foundation, utilizes the nationwide network of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) to recruit students at all academic levels (undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral) who are majoring in the biological sciences, mathematical and physical sciences, geosciences, computer and information science, or engineering. The first cohort of 30 students, seven of whom are in Chemistry and allied fields, was chosen in the fall of 2014. These 30 students come from 27 different institutions across the country. All student participants have expressed interest in pursuing a college or university faculty career. AISES CEO Sarah EchoHawk serves as the Principal Investigator of the project, with the support of four Native American STEM faculty co-PIs. Currently a total of 15 STEM faculty members, most of whom are Native American, serve as mentors to the student participants and each student is assigned to a faculty mentor. Through regular conversations one-on-one with mentors and through webinars and conferences, students receive guidance and encouragement in career development, including participation in summer research internships and writing graduate/postdoctoral fellowship applications. Frequent face-to-face and virtual meetings expose participants to topics such as balancing life and career, effective study habits, overcoming geographic and cultural isolation, graduate school and career preparation, strategies for success as a STEM major, integration of traditional culture with an academic career, and writing successful fellowship and grant applications. Short-term goals of the project are to help students to persist and succeed in their chosen fields and to continue on to the next step in the journey to a faculty position. The long-term goal is to increase the number of Native faculty members in STEM fields in higher education.

Lighting the pathway to academic careers for Native Americans in STEM: Preliminary report

250th National Meeting (2015)

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