Enhancing Research Dissemination, Science Identity, and Research Self-Efficacy among Underrepresented Biomedical Science Majors: The Impact of Undergraduate Research Experiences.

Research training is important for workforce development in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The STEM higher education literature has identified various components critical to the success of research training programs such as research mentoring and training. Less work has been conducted on other research training activities such as conference participation even though it is an interactive activity that can allow students to develop science self-efficacy and science identity. Yet, the costs associated with conference attendance may be a barrier for students, especially those who already have financial concerns about funding their education. This paper evaluates how conference participation (i.e., conference attendance and/or presentation) contributes to students' development of research self-efficacy and science identity within a STEM research training program at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) called the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Scholars program. Data were collected from students enrolled in the departments engaged in health-related research across four colleges (natural sciences, engineering, health and human services and liberal arts) at CSULB. This study used propensity score matching and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to predict research self-efficacy and science identity from exposure to the BUILD intervention and conference participation. Results indicate that both participation in the BUILD Scholars program and conferences have a strong positive association with research self-efficacy and science identity. Overall, the results of this study present a strong case for including conference attendance and presentations as a part of any STEM education research training program.

Transitioning from high school to college can be a stressful experience for young adults. While some stress is necessary to successfully adapt during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, many college students may have difficulty adapting and be more prone to significant emotional distress that impacts daily life. Grounded theory methodology was used to examine the process of managing self-identified depression during the first year of college. Purposive sampling was used to recruit first-semester sophomore students who self-identified as being depressed during their freshman year. Thirty-five interviews were completed, each began with one open-ended question: "What was the experience of your freshman year in college?" Participants described the social context of depression during their freshman year. Analysis was completed by four experienced researchers using NVivo. Four themes emerged to form the grounded theory of Managing Self-identified Depression during the Freshman Year of College. These themes included: navigating the day-to-day context; making and maintaining meaningful connections; living with emotions, behaviors, and history of depression; and coping to manage depressive symptoms. As the mental health issues continue to increase in this population, grounded theory provides a better understanding of the needs of students living with depression during their freshman year in college.

Multiple types of dieting prospectively predict weight gain during the freshman year of college

Weight gain, dietary restraint, and disordered eating in the freshman year of college

Participants in this phenomenological study were 11 Black women who received an undergraduate degree from a historically Black college or university and were currently attending graduate school at a southern predominantly White university. This study investigated the adjustment experiences of these women to life on a southern predominantly White campus. Through analysis of participant interview transcripts and demographic questionnaires, support systems emerged as a critical factor in each student's experience, with themes focused on mentors, family and friends, and romantic relationships. Keywords: Black, adjustment, graduate school ********** A research participant interviewed for this study, a 4th year doctoral student in a social sciences field, commented about her friend, another doctoral student, and her experience at a southern predominantly White university (PWU): She has had a difficult time because she's in [program name] and she's the only Black student over there now. And she's in a master's-to-PhD program so that's extra hard. And she's faced with a lot of adversity ... she doesn't have support from her supervisors over there. They've made racial comments ... and with being a minority [Black and female], you're already still kind of outcast to begin with in a predominantly White, good-old-boys institution. A lot of the literature discusses how support systems affect Black college students' adjustment experiences at PWUs (Cabrera, Nora, Terenzini, Pascarella & Hagedorn, 1999; Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010; Schwartz, Bower, Rice, & Washington, 2003), but most research is limited to undergraduate education. Specifically, an inadequate amount of research exists on Black women's experiences attending graduate school, particularly at PWUs. Researchers have revealed conflicting data regarding the impact of support systems on the retention of Black students attending PWUs. Nettles and Millett (2006) stated that there is a direct correlation between the constructive impact of socialization and the performance, contentment, and achievement of Black graduate students who are in doctoral programs where Blacks are underrepresented. Furthermore, Nettles and Millett found that the retention rates for Blacks transitioning from undergraduate to graduate studies dropped 50% more than the rates of their Asian peers and 75% more than the rates of their White peers, Tinto (1993) posited that most successful college students become better integrated into the college social and academic environment if they are able to detach themselves from support systems such as family and friends. Conversely, Guiffrida (2005) disclosed findings that suggested that high-achieving Black students attending PWUs were successful because of the emotional, academic, and financial support shown to them by their families. Guiffrida (2005) also reported that Black students' families often encouraged them to concentrate on staying in college, rather than coming home, even if families were in need of the students' financial support. Moreover, Guiffrida (2004) asserted that friends from home were an asset for Black students attending PWUs, especially when they were able to relate common experiences and provide needed emotional support. Seymour and Hewitt (1997) conducted a study in which Black preengineering majors at a PWU were connected with a faculty mentor, who was available for all activities, during their freshman year of college. Not only did these students successfully complete their freshman year, but they continued their enrollment in the college of engineering and graduated with an engineering degree (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). E. P. Smith and Davidson (1992) asserted that Black master's and doctoral students with mentors were more likely to succeed than their Black counterparts without mentors. Therefore, the support of mentors has played a pivotal role in the success of Black college students attending PWUs. …

Learning to Write: A Personal Reflection

Implicit internalization of the thin ideal as a predictor of increases in weight, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating

The freshman year of college as a critical period for weight gain: An initial evaluation

The organization Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN; www.funfaculty.org) was established in 1991 by a group of neuroscientists dedicated to innovation and excellence in undergraduate neuroscience education and research (Ramirez and Normansell, 2003 ). The founders experienced a need for a community of neuroscience educators because no formal division existed within the Society for Neuroscience (SfN; www.sfn.org) to support undergraduates or the faculty who focus on undergraduate neuroscience education. An educator's ability to incorporate current research and techniques in crowded undergraduate curricula becomes even more critical as our understanding of how nervous systems develop, function, adapt, and malfunction continues to expand. Teaching faculty must meet the significant challenges of communicating a broad and fast-paced discipline to a growing undergraduate audience. Moreover, as research experiences for undergraduates are increasingly encouraged and expected, providing undergraduates with meaningful research experiences is an additional, ongoing challenge for educators in the face of smaller budgets for research and education. To help undergraduate neuroscience faculty meet these challenges, FUN has emerged as a professional organization dedicated to the support and development of undergraduate neuroscience educators. The need for an organization that specifically supports excellence in undergraduate neuroscience has grown as an increasing number of interdisciplinary undergraduate neuroscience programs are formalized at colleges and universities. As evidence of the growing interest, FUN's membership has been increasing steadily and currently includes more than 500 individuals at more than 300 colleges and universities. FUN's members represent a broad range of scientific disciplines, including biology, psychology, chemistry, computer science, and philosophy; they work and teach at a variety of institutions, ranging from private, small liberal arts colleges to regional, state, and research universities.

Biology, technology and a bit of serendipity: an interview with Shiva Malek

The freshman year of college has been identified as a period of time where some students experience drastic changes to their eating behaviors, body image, and weight. One factor that is predictive of changes in these variables is internalization of the thin ideal. Self-reported internalization has been shown to prospectively predict increases in disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction, and reduced food consumption. Low internalization has predicted weight gain. However, given the limitation of self report and previous research demonstrating the additional predictive validity implicit measurement provides, it may be important to measure internalization of the thin ideal using an implicit paradigm. The Implicit Association Test is the most common implicit measurement technique. However this test is associational in nature, which is only one aspect of human cognition. The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure focuses on the relational nature of human cognition, and therefore might be a better tool to measure internalization of the thin ideal. The relationship between implicit internalization of the thin ideal and increases in disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction, and weight may be best measured by using a college freshman population, given the large amount of change that occurs in these variables during the course of the year. Results of the current, longitudinal study indicate that weight, disorder eating and body image dissatisfaction increased during the freshman year, and that these were predicted by implicit internalization of the thin ideal at the beginning of the year. Moreover, the new implicit measure was predictive above and beyond any predictive ability of the explicit measure (which was relatively limited). Results indicate that the thin ideal IRAP can successfully predict changes in many variables of interest at the freshman year of college, and suggest it may be a beneficial screening tool to assess at risk freshman. This study also highlights the need for additional implicit measures in the realm of body image and disordered eating. Future research is needed to replicate and extend these findings.

If you are a typical doctoral graduate student or postdoc, you are in a program at a large university that prioritizes research and doctoral degree graduate training; undergraduate education may be part of the mission, but not the primary focus. If you are a professor who is training doctoral graduate students and supervising postdocs, chances are you only have experience as a faculty member at this type of higher education institution. Whether graduate student or professor, what you are learning or mentoring is what is expected and valued for career success at a research and graduate education-focused institution. There are over 3,900 colleges and universities in the United States alone, of which only about 270 are doctoral degree-granting, research-focused universities (American Council on Education https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php). Most jobs in the professoriate are at higher education institutions with other missions, different educational environments, and distinctly different criteria for hiring, evaluation, and promotion than a standard doctorate degree-granting institution. Unfortunately, I have found that many talented people on the job market for a faculty job are insufficiently informed and prepared for positions at institutions that differ in mission from where they received their graduate degree. Here, I will focus on another type of higher education institution—a college or university with a joint mission of research and education, with an emphasis on undergraduate teaching and research that involves undergraduates. Such institutions are usually much smaller than doctoral degree-granting, research-focused universities. They may have no graduate degree program, or if they do, it will be small; the focus is on undergraduates. The key feature of this type of institution is that there are job expectations for both excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level and impactful research productivity. Note, however, that there is much diversity among such colleges and universities in terms of the expectations of faculty members for research activity, teaching load, student mentoring, community engagement, and institutional service. For shorthand, I will refer to universities for both true universities (graduate degree-granting institutions) and colleges (undergraduate only) and research for any scholarship of discovery or creativity. When I refer to smaller universities, I mean those with under 5,000 undergraduates. I am writing to those who are searching for a faculty position in ecology or environmental science or their faculty mentors. However, the early career tips will generally apply to any field. While the focus is on primarily undergraduate teaching and research-focused institutions, some of the tips will also apply to jobs at 2- and 4-year colleges that have an exclusively undergraduate education mission. At these institutions, there is increasingly an expectation for some research involving students, since research is a beneficial, high-impact student educational experience (e.g., Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative. https://www.ccuri.us/). In the following, I treat four topics: how to apply for a job, what to take into account when considering a job offer, what to do to be successful as a new faculty member, and the additional challenges for women and minoritized faculty members. For each, I will provide some things to consider and recommended best practices. I base this advice on my experience over two decades in higher education, and comments from many colleagues, who provided their own insights from a diversity of standpoints, perspectives, and experiences. Applying for and interviewing at a university with a joint teaching and research mission is different than, on the one hand, a research and graduate education-focused university and, on the other hand, a primarily undergraduate teaching institution. To be competitive, you need to convince the hiring committee that you can maintain a productive research program that incorporates undergraduates. You must convince them that you are committed to teaching excellence and student advising and mentoring. You need to convince the hiring committee that you fit the needs of the department, support the mission of the university, and for professional and personal reasons are genuinely interested in a position there, so will likely stay if hired. Hiring searches typically have five steps. First, after administrative approval to open a search for a new faculty member, the hiring unit (e.g., Department of Biology) and the university's human resources department will draft and disseminate the position description and the job ad. A surprising amount of care and thought can go into drafting the position description, especially in terms of required and preferred qualifications. The second step is the initial review of the applications. This is where the committee quickly goes through files and weeds out those who are not qualified or unsuitable for the position—for example, applicants who have not yet defended their thesis who apply for a position that specifies postdoc experience. Based on a closer look at the remaining applicants, the third step is for the committee to come up with a list of a dozen or more promising candidates and schedule them for a video call or “phone interview.” This interview step helps the committee understand more about a candidate's experience and commitment to excellence in teaching, about whether the candidate can establish a successful research program at the institution, and about whether the candidate is genuinely interested in the position and prepared to be successful at it. The fourth step is to select a few of the most promising phone-interview candidates for the on-campus interview. Usually, about three candidates are invited to campus. If you are among those with a campus interview, it means that the hiring committee judges you as a suitable person for the job. During the campus visit, interviews are scheduled with many people, including members of the hiring committee, other faculty members within and outside the hiring department, students, and administrators. Minimally, there will be a research job talk, but there may also be a teaching demonstration required. Other than the hiring committee, most of the people you will meet will only have a cursory familiarity with your professional achievements and interests—you will make many first impressions. Everyone you meet or who attends your presentations, including the department secretary, will have a chance to provide their opinion about your suitability for the position. The fifth step is to choose a candidate and make them a job offer, followed by negotiations over terms until the contract is signed. This process is discussed in the section Evaluating the Job Offer. Prepare for such a career. It is likely you have graduate and postdoctoral training that has adequately prepared you for a research career. One of the best ways to prepare for the “teaching side” of the job is by teaching a course or two as “instructor of record.” Some institutions hire teaching postdocs which require one to teach a load of courses while also receiving support for research and mentoring. Any professional training in teaching effectiveness and pedagogy is valuable. A conventional teaching assistantship (i.e., T.A. experience) is generally not adequate preparation for a teaching-intensive institution. To prepare for the “research side,” some experience in supervising undergraduate research is invaluable while you are a graduate student or postdoc. Have your supervisor mentor you on the budgetary side of research—how much instruments, research materials, services, and staff support cost and how to budget and track expenditures. You should make yourself familiar with sources of funding in your field well before pursuing a tenure-track position. Note that there are funding programs intended for supporting research that involves undergraduates or that is conducted at institutions with a small or no graduate program—make sure to be familiar with some of these funding opportunities. Get some experience or training in grant writing. Most importantly, talk with faculty members at institutions of the sort you might consider making a career at, and ask them about their careers, and what they advise you to do to prepare for a career at a similar institution. A good place for this is a professional conference like the ESA Annual Meeting. Ask them what it takes to be hired and successful. Find out what, in their frank opinion, are the satisfactions and challenges of a career at an institution with a mission similar to their university. Familiarize yourself with the culture and priorities of the institution and department. Institutions have their own cultures, values, priorities, and areas of academic distinction. Spend time on the university's website. It will provide a profile of its mission, student body, and areas of emphasis. Look up the university at the various online sites that profile and “rate” universities. Google the institution and see what kinds of recent news articles and press releases are published about it. Use your social network to identify someone who is familiar with the institution and can provide some insight. Institutions vary in the student populations they primarily serve: the traditional undergraduate population, academically talented or privileged students, first-generation and low-income students, or nontraditional students (e.g., parents, working people, active military). Some universities have mostly residential students, others mostly commuters. Some are MSIs (Minority Serving Institutions). Some focus on training students for particular professions (e.g., allied health, engineering); some emphasize a “liberal” education. Some promote service-learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, team-based learning, flipped classrooms, or online learning, whereas others mainly provide traditional textbook and classroom lecture-centered courses. Institutions vary on how important it is for undergraduate research experiences to result in published research papers. Even at institutions that have a joint research and teaching mission, some weight teaching more highly, others research. Some institutions are inward-looking, some outward. For some, service to the department, university, and community is very important; for others, it is not. At some universities, departmental and interdisciplinary faculty research collaborations are highly valued. Some institutions are supportive of research that takes you away from the university campus, especially if it incorporates students, whereas others expect faculty members to remain on or near it. Some institutions and departments value work–life balance and others stress professional achievement. When considering whether to apply for a position at an institution, you should think about whether you can adapt to and adopt its culture and values, and whether you would want to do so. If the answer is no, do not apply. You will not be happy professionally or personally. The hiring committee will certainly be looking for indications that you are willing to make a career at the university, and if it appears that you will not, it will move on to other candidates. Tailor the teaching statement to the institution and the position. Obviously, if the department's teaching mission is primarily or exclusively undergraduate, stress undergraduate not graduate teaching in the statement. You should provide a list of courses you would like to teach, and courses that you are qualified and willing to teach. Make sure to include any courses listed in the job ad as courses you would like to teach. Smaller departments prefer to hire someone who can fill multiple gaps in the curriculum; familiarize yourself with what existing department members teach, and propose courses that fill the gaps. Avoid proposing highly specialized courses, since at smaller institutions the number of students who are prepared and interested enough to take highly specialized courses may be too small to sustain them. ‘Molecular Phylogeography of Mollusks’ may be a course you would love to teach, but “Biogeography” may be a more attractive and sustainable course at a smaller, undergraduate-focused institution. Strong teaching statements demonstrate familiarity with current trends in higher education pedagogy, for example, student-centered teaching and inclusive classrooms. Specifics about learning activities that you have developed and done in the classroom or field are invaluable in a teaching statement. Descriptions of courses you have taught as “instructor of record” are quite valuable (include the syllabus and course evaluations). Considerably less weight is given to courses for which you were a teaching assistant. Thoughtful reflection on challenges you have faced in the classroom and how you addressed them can strengthen the teaching statement. Most importantly of all, deliver the message that you like teaching and you like students, you value good teaching, and you are working toward becoming an excellent university educator. Be honest and specific in a diversity statement. You may be asked to include a diversity statement. If so, you are expected to discuss what diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mean to you, and how they apply in your professional practice, including teaching, research, and institutional and professional service. For some, this is straightforward to write; for others, it is more of a challenge. If you are one of the latter, consider what kinds of training and activities you have participated in pertaining to DEI. Why do diversity and inclusion matter to you? Reflect on what you have done or plan to do to foster a diverse, inclusive, and supportive classroom and research team. What have you done or will you do to recruit and mentor a diverse group of students as your field and laboratory research teams, and how will you foster inclusiveness, community, and safety? What have you done or will do to be involved in organizations that mentor and support students who are underrepresented in your field, such as the Ecology Society of America's SEEDS program? Be sure to mention any DEI-related professional development activities in which you have participated. Demonstrate an awareness of the barriers to DEI in higher education and reflect on some ways you can contribute to overcoming them. If you have not thought much about this before, it is time for you to become informed. Some hiring committees and certainly some institutions take DEI very seriously, and the number that do are growing, thankfully. Increasingly, institutions, when evaluating candidates for tenure and promotion, assess a faculty member's efforts in the classroom and institution pertaining to DEI. If the institution does not request a diversity statement, weave content about your awareness, commitment, and experiences with DEI issues in your cover letter and other statements. Solicit helpful recommendation letters. At some point, the search committee will want recommendation letters, typically three, from people who know you well. Some institutions want them at the time you apply—I resent this practice, as it unnecessarily increases the workload on recommenders. It may be a disincentive for some jobseekers to apply to long-shot jobs so as not to annoy their recommenders, or else prematurely tip off colleagues that they are on the market. Other search committees will request once you have been selected as a potential phone interviewee. Let your recommenders know that they may get a letter request at some point. Do not request a recommendation letter until the search committee requests it. Be strategic about who provides the recommendation letter, and ask recommenders to include some specific details relevant to the hiring search. Three letter writers who laud your research may be the right approach for an R1 research university, but for those where undergraduate teaching is important, you will want a recommendation letter that can discuss your teaching effectiveness and commitment to teaching excellence. You may ask a recommender who is familiar with how you have mentored undergraduate research to include in the letter comments about this. The recommender can address your commitment to working at an institution with an undergraduate teaching and research mission. If there is something in your record that may raise questions, you can ask a sympathetic recommender who is familiar with the circumstances to comment on it if you wish. Do not hesitate to provide potential “talking points” in a recommendation letter—recommenders understand and appreciate the importance of providing information in a recommendation letter that is sought by the recipient. Phone interviews are professional interviews. In the past, initial interviews were done by telephone but are now typically done online via video chats. Make sure you look professional and are in a professional-looking environment when you have that interview (e.g., no unmade bed in the background). Make sure that the technology is unlikely to glitch on your end; be in a place with reliable, fast internet connectivity. Use a headset so you can hear well and they can hear you. You will be asked questions about what you are prepared for and would like to teach at that institution, what resources you would need to be successful, and why you are interested in the position. You may be asked some specifics—who might fund your research, what instrumentation you might need, and what pedagogical training you have had. The hiring committee will likely schedule the interview for a half-hour or hour. Write down some talking points beforehand—those things you want to make sure to remember and mention if asked. Make sure to include some specific points addressing what it is that makes you a suitable candidate for the position. Answer questions succinctly and avoid going on tangents or filibustering; time is limited, and the interviewers have a number of questions to cover. After answering a question, ask whether your response was clear and would the committee like any more detail. Make sure you have thought of a couple of good questions to ask the committee about the position and the university. The committee will judge your degree of interest and preparedness by whether you have some good relevant questions for them, and by whether you demonstrate that you have already tried to familiarize yourself with the department and university. At the phone-interview stage, the hiring committee mainly wants to meet the real person behind the application and judge whether they are suitable for the position and are adequately prepared and motivated to be a successful faculty member at that university. Be prepared and motivated to talk with undergraduate students. During the campus interview process, you are likely to be required to meet undergraduate students and graduate students if the department has a graduate program. The students are unlikely to be a random sample, so be careful about making generalizations about students as a whole from their Be and interested in the students, and be prepared to your teaching and research but also be prepared to ask about and hear about their research and course and experiences and on the institution. have their chances of a job by or to the hiring committee will ask the students for about their with you. You have to like and students if you to make a career at an institution that teaching In to and to the students you with the visit, make sure that you that you are prepared and committed to be an for students. Do not make comments about teaching or refer to these as make comments about students academic or career focus is different from your if you are interviewing for a faculty job as an that you are as committed to teaching for or students as you are to those who have and career on Be prepared for different of questions If you have an on-campus interview, you will likely meet with department some students, the department the or other higher and human resources or the research support The human resources and unit are to you know the and support they In the of the will be evaluating you as a potential faculty member and, to convince you to a job should you undergraduate and will be to about what courses you might teach and what research you would whether you would be a good and mentor of students like them. Department members will want to know about what you are interested in teaching, your research, and how you might be a potential with them. They will be to you about their research and if you already know something about it. Department and will whether you might be a good fit for departmental and institutional research, teaching, and other whether you are and with and whether you are likely to an with of making a career They will ask about what you need in terms of They may ask whether you have who you may be to with at the institution. Department will the to They may also ask would it take for you to be successful They will judge from your how faculty you and whether you are likely to be to meet the university's tenure will typically also talk about the university's community and ask questions about what you do outside of This is intended to provide into whether you are likely to the community a good fit for your and It is also an of up a if you about that ask It is to ask whether you have a or for example, but they may mention the of the and university programs to faculty It is up to you whether you to any personal information or ask questions that might such in however, that these are also your to about the institution, its people, and the Ask students about what they like and about the institution. Ask them how they like their Ask the faculty members about what they like about working what they do not. Ask about whether department members and what You may get different from early career Ask the what they and the institution do to new adapt and make toward these are questions you will need to in to whether that university is a place where you want to make a career. However, such questions also to faculty and that you are to be a faculty member and interested in their university. If you want a job from a university, you have to that you are about the and see it as a good fit for your career and human resources or an will provide details about the interview. Institutions differ about when they the other and but that usually does not the on-campus interview. this will be when you a job Evaluating the Job the on-campus interview is a with the department or hiring committee They will ask you how the from your whether you have any remaining questions, and whether you are interested in the position. They will likely you the in the process and how it may be until you hear something about the if they do not, Make sure to them for the to interview at the university. to the department hiring committee and faculty and others with you meet the campus interview. the administrative who with the of the interview. go a in that you are interested in the position and likely to be a good and departmental After the interviews are universities vary the typical process is for the hiring committee to meet after to the from students, and discuss the and make a hiring The committee candidates as to whether they adequately meet the for the position and whether they are likely to be successful, tenure when the time for no to of these and a candidate will not be If of the candidates these the committee may be to additional people from the phone-interview for a campus When more than one candidate is these are and additional are (e.g., other they can teach, whether they the department in The hiring committee the candidate from its to the department for their and the the or another for This fast the university does not want to a good hire to another institution. a candidate is for the department will call the hire and them know that they are the job. The will ask whether they will the offer, and if provide the terms of the and expected for example, teaching load, and the research The may ask the hire to provide a of A will be and for review the of the is typically given a to There may a of negotiations until a candidate the contract and the hiring search It is for a candidate that was not the first of the committee to be the one that is some the institution does not their or else a contract be you have received a job from a university with a joint undergraduate teaching and research mission. first response is to the person making the Do you This is one of the few in an academic career you have some to and the contract you will what support you have the and your for your career at the institution. While many of the discussed are relevant for any higher education institution job, there are also some things to consider that are to universities with a primarily undergraduate teaching and research joint mission, especially a smaller You should an institution from the that a job there is likely to be a the of faculty can be You need to whether the institution will provide the resources and professional development you need to be successful at research and teaching, whether it will provide the and support that will the work–life balance you and whether the institution and its have suitable and for you your and You should consider these in both the up to and over the of your career. are more to the offer, and this is one of in and women The is important it your your career at the institution. Usually, the person you the job will at a than they are prepared to to your professional graduate students and postdocs, your and postdoc to get with and in and early career teaching load, early so is Note that you may be to get from the institution in a position for a at the institution or the The time to that is when you the initial Some institutions

Hi Reddit! Karl here. I am a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware. I have a successful research group with over 100 publications and 5 patents on the design and application of chemical sensors. I’m a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. I broke my neck BASE jumping in the Grand Canyon during Spring Break my freshman year of college. OK, really it was playing flag football, but I’m working on a much sexier legend. I’ve been active in promoting inclusion of underrepresented groups, especially persons with disabilities in STEM for the past 15 years. I’ve chaired the ACS Committee on Chemists with Disabilities and am current chair of the ACS Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board. I’m also Principal Investigator on a newly renewed NSF research experience for undergraduates (REU) grant to get research experience for students with disabilities interested in advanced STEM degrees. http://sites.udel.edu/seli-ud/ People with disabilities (PWD) continue to be a greatly underrepresented group in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). PWD comprise 7% of the population between 16 and 21 (US Census) and 8.6% of the total school population participates in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Students with disabilities express interest in STEM at the same rate as students without disabilities. Approximately 20% of graduating high school seniors and ~20% of graduating college seniors wish to continue towards a higher degree in STEM. However, less than 2% of STEM doctoral degrees earned by US citizens or permanent residents are awarded to students who identify as having a disability! Remove soft sciences from the equation and the rate drops to 1%. Amazingly there has been no improvement in PWD doctoral students since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1991: there is no statistical increase in the percentage of earned STEM doctoral degrees by PWD among US citizens or permanent residents at US institutions (see this figure http://i.imgur.com/3LPJMjN.png). Factor in foreign national students to get the statistics on all STEM doctoral degrees awarded by US institutions and the trend becomes negative improvement. Across the same time frame, the percentage of STEM doctoral degrees earned by African American and Hispanic students each increased by 0.16 or 0.17 percentage points per year on average. Federal support and interest in the outcome may well be a factor. The 2010 Federal STEM Education Inventory Data Set on broadening participation (data.gov) shows $397.8M dedicated to ‘Institutional Capacity’ or ‘Postsecondary STEM’ with $378.3M earmarked for underrepresented minorities and only $19.6M dedicated to students with disabilities. This is a 19:1 ratio! I will be back at 1 pm ET, Ask me anything about getting more opportunities in STEM research and careers for people with disabilities! Hi All! I’m on live now. I’ll probably stay live a bit past 2:00 pm EST. I type slowly. /ksb I’ll drop back in later tonight after my kids go to bed to get to the rest of the great questions. /ksb There is a couple of questions that I haven’t gotten to. I’ll try to hit those tomorrow, but I have a proposal that I need to wrap up in the next 24 hours. /ksb

African American college students are gaining weight at a pace faster than other ethnic groups yet research on this population is lacking. Exploration of freshman weight gain through the cultural lens of an African American student may provide a better understanding of this event. The research question for this study was, "How are the dimensions of technology, culture, kinship, economics, and the experience of stress described by African American students who gained weight during their freshman year in college?." Using Leininger's Cultural Care Theory and Sunrise Model as study frameworks, a qualitative study involving face-to-face interviews was conducted with directed content analysis used to interpret data. The final synthesized themes of this study are: technology is a double edge sword, kinship is a revolving door of relationships, culture is a discordant fit, economics is juggling resources, and stress is a never ending cycle of tension. Leininger's dimensions of technology, kinship, culture, and economics were upheld as useful guides to assess cultural influences of weight gain for this group. Inclusion of stress as a dimension is suggested based on participant reflections. Study results may be applicable in future clinical and educational research focused on weight management for the African American student.

Reflections on Emancipatory Ways of Knowing.