Enhancing Diversity in STEM Careers Through Mentored Training (2022-2023)

Despite the importance of diversity in STEM fields, underrepresented minorities make up only a small percentage of college graduates majoring in STEM. The environmental health field is particularly homogenous, an especially disturbing fact given the pervasiveness of environmental injustice and the relationship between environmental issues and health in topics such as air pollutants and cancer rates.

To help address the deficit in representation, this team created the Health and Environment Scholars Program at Duke. This program allows Durham Public Schools (DPS) high school students to explore interdisciplinary environmental science and health subjects alongside undergraduate mentors. The program strives to provide year-round, hands-on programming, mentorship across learner levels, as well as college-readiness training. 

The curriculum is focused on investigating the interplay of environmental science and health, including, for example, the ways in which environmental pollutants cause cancer; pollutants in seafood; and how biodiversity benefits health. Team members guided DPS students through lessons and data collection during field experiences to create a final project and presentation identifying an environmental health problem and a potential solution.

The team implemented the program and evaluated it by surveying students and educators. They also created communications materials for the program, worked toward a research publication and developed a secondary curriculum.

Timing

Summer 2022 – Summer 2023

Team Outputs

Mentoring Future Health and Environment Scholars (2023 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Enhancing Diversity in STEM Careers Through Mentored Training (poster by Emma Shuppert, Katie Tan, Larry Zheng, Lydia Sellers, Madena Mustafa, Madison Griffin and Jerry Fu, presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 19, 2023)

Meagan Dunphy-Daly, Nicolette Cagle and Jason Somarelli. Diversifying the STEM Workforce by Promoting Positive College and Career Outcomes Among Local High School Students From Systematically Excluded Identities (grant awarded by Duke Office of the Provost: Racial and Social Equity in Local Context)

Development and implementation of Health and Environment Scholars Program, a year-long program for DPS students focused on health and the environment in North Carolina

Development and implementation of additional high school curricula

Program evaluation and reporting

Research paper 

See related team, Enhancing Diversity in STEM Careers Through Mentored Training (2023-2024).
 

 

Image: Githens Middle School eighth graders listen to a robot’s heartbeat in the Duke Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center at the Trent Semans Center during Duke-Durham School Days, by Jared Lazarus

Women looking at computers.

Team Leaders

  • Nicolette Cagle, Nicholas School of the Environment-Environmental Sciences and Policy
  • Meagan Dunphy-Daly, Nicholas School of the Environment-Marine Science and Conservation
  • Rachel Karasik, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability
  • Jason Somarelli, School of Medicine-Medicine: Medical Oncology

/graduate Team Members

  • Tasneem Ahsanullah, Master of Environmental Management, Coastal Environmental Management
  • Laura Martinez, Environment-MS
  • Alex Risius, Environment-MS
  • Alma Solis, Evolutionary Anthropology-PHD

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Jerry Fu, Environmental Sciences (BS)
  • Madison Griffin, Biology (BS)
  • Madena Mustafa, Environmental Sci/Policy (AB)
  • Lydia Sellers, Environmental Sci/Policy (AB)
  • Emma Shuppert, Marine Sci & Conservation (BS)
  • Katie Tan, Economics (BS)
  • Larry Zheng, Biology (BS)

/yfaculty/staff Team Members

  • Octavia Crompton, Pratt School of Engineering-Civil & Environmental Engineering

/zcommunity Team Members

  • Durham Public Schools
  • North Carolina School of Science and Math
  • Environmental Science Summer Program
  • Boost (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology)