Education and outreach programs centered around water are greatly lacking in underserved communities where the need is the greatest. Problems and challenges faced by these communities are best understood by those who live them daily; thus the best way to encourage change is to build capacity at the local level. Clean Water Science Network (a United States 501(c)3 nonprofit) facilitates a mentorship for undergraduate students from underserved communities in Latin America. The mentorship program focuses on teaching undergraduate students (mentees) about water and sanitation while also preparing them for an advanced degree. Mentees have an interest in water-related issues, graduate studies in the U.S. and assisting underserved communities. They are individually paired with a graduate student or young professional mentor in the U.S. based on combined technical interests. Each month an interactive video webinar is held for all participants. The topics for the webinars and assigned activities are designed to teach mentees about various water-related topics, the scientific process, and graduate school preparation. Meetings between each mentor and mentee via video or text provide one-on-one interaction on the focused lecture-related actives. Organized virtual symposiums with multiple mentee-mentor pairs allow for group discussions and team-building. Our research focuses on the effectiveness of this water-centered and globally-connected education program by evaluating STEM major retention, continued interest in water-related graduate school and careers, and creation of “snowballed” research projects that aid underserved communities. Since the program is still rather new, this presentation will focus on its structure and the metrics that are currently being collected. To-date interest and demand are very promising: the 2017 cohort consisted of 6 mentors and 6 mentees whereas the 2018 cohort consists of 29 mentors and 29 mentees. Additionally, in the first year, mentors were from a single graduate institution (University of Texas at Austin), but the program has now expanded to include five institutions (University of Texas at Austin, University of North Carolina, University Southern California, Duke University, and Stanford University). Tracking the impact of these programs will allow us to focus future efforts on the most effective tools to achieve the goals.

Preparing for water-related graduate school in the United States: Online mentorship in water education for students from underserved communities

2019 Spring National Meeting

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