Among the 88 students attending, 31 were cheap ativan online no prescription African-American, 30 were Hispanic-American (including 13 Puerto Ricans), and two were Native American. Sixteen of the students were McNair scholars. (Most McNair scholars are both from low-income families and are the first generation in their family to go to college.) Four reported having a disability. Typically, first-generation college students are not familiar with disciplines such as biostatistics, which is a graduate discipline, and also may not be aware that mathematics majors are well qualified to do graduate study in statistics, biostatistics, educational testing and measurement, and other quantitative areas.
The Alliance began with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Mathematical Sciences, with Philip Kutzko (professor of mathematics at the University of Iowa) as principal investigator. Since its original inception as a collaboration between the three Iowa Regents universities and four “historically black colleges and universities” (HBCUs), the Alliance has grown into a force for inclusion and diversity in the mathematical sciences. The Alliance is a community of mathematical science faculty members who have made a commitment to mentor students from underrepresented groups. It includes mentors from institutions serving large numbers of Hispanic students as well as HBCUs, and from colleges without graduate programs in the mathematical sciences. These mentors work together with graduate mentors at research universities to facilitate student success in graduate school.
Twenty-eight non-Iowa Alliance undergraduate mentors, 14 non-Iowa Alliance graduate mentors, and six PhD mathematical scientists from industry and government attended the conference. On Sunday morning the Alliance mentors met separately from the students to network and to move the Alliance mission forward. Some former Alliance undergraduate scholars, now in graduate school in Iowa and elsewhere, also attended the conference to meet with their undergraduate mentors as well as with students from their former colleges and universities. Multiple faculty mentors from Iowa Regents Institutions, in mathematical sciences and in other quantitative areas, also attended.
Statistics is well represented in the Alliance. Founding graduate departments include the Iowa State University Department of Statistics and the University of Iowa Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Graduate departments now include biostatistics at both the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama in Birmingham and the statistics department at North Carolina State University, as well as other departments of mathematics with tracks in statistics. Alliance graduate departments have a record of mentoring underrepresented students in doctoral programs in the mathematical sciences, and at least 10% of the faculty in an Alliance graduate department must commit to being an Alliance mentor. To continue the support network created by the conference, these graduate mentors listed on the Alliance web site are now available to mentor any Alliance scholar through the Mentor Match program.
Evaluations were very positive. In response to the open-ended question “What are the two or three most important things you gained from the conference?” the responses included:
- “I have gained a better look at what is the graduate experience, how to succeed in graduate school, and all the opportunities available and have met really amazing people that share my interests.”
- “What I want to know to make sure a grad program is right for me”
- Networking
- Career information
- “I love math but I didn’t have a lot of info on nonacademic careers related to math.”
- “Chance to meet grad school recruiters”
- “Importance of balancing professors, prestige, and support when choosing a grad school”
- “Motivation to continue working”
- “It was so encouraging to hear all the panelists that gained a PhD tell their story.”
The conference program committee included Philip Kutzko (chair for the Field of Dreams), Kathryn Chaloner (co-chair for StatFest), Robert Ankenmann, Alicia Carriquiry, Leslie Hogben, and Doug Mupasiri, together with Nagambal Shah and Brian Millen, who represented the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics. Major funding for the Alliance Field of Dreams Conference was provided by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency. Major funding for StatFest was provided by the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics and also by the ACT Inc. For more information on the alliance and for a list of sponsors, click here.
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