Making Access Real: Building Capacity in Higher Education Gates Millennium Scholars

1. Making Access Real: Building Capacity in Higher EducationGates Millennium Scholars AERA 2005

2. A Framework for Assessing Capacity Building William T. Trent University of Illinois

3. Equitable access • Elusive for students of color • Nuanced • Multiple indicators of ability • Quality financial aid

4. Different capacity building efforts: • Legal remedies • Public programs at the local, state and federal levels • Private activities that are institutionally or agency based

5. The Gates Millennium Scholars: • targets students of color • targets talented students • targets financially needy students • targets the higher education pipeline segment • targets selected fields at the graduate level of the educational pipeline

6. Research framework • Basic research that addresses discipline generated questions • Applied research that addresses critical questions of practice

7. Four orienting concentrations: • Treatment • Selection Process and Selection Criteria • Population • Technical matters related to science of research activity

8. Constructs: • Social, cultural, linguistic, and economic background • Gender patterns • High school achievement and educational context • Rigor of high school curriculum • Relevance of civic and other extra-curricular leadership opportunities • The GMS selection process • The role of financial aid • Mentoring • College choice

9. Constructs continued… • Transition to college • College attendance • Major field choice and persistence • Academic, cultural and social experience • Development of and the role of leadership • Civic and community engagement • Values, opinions, attitudes and perceptions • College graduation • Transition to graduate school • Graduate education • Employment experience

10. “Leaders for America’s Future” Dr. Margaret Daniels Tyler Executive Director

11. ABOUT GMS • Funded by a 1 billion dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • Established in 1999. • The goal is to promote academic excellence and to provide an opportunity for 20,000 outstanding students with significant financial need to reach their fullest potential.

12. ABOUT THE PROGRAM The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) The Organization of Chinese Americans The American Indian Graduate Center Scholars The Hispanic Scholarship Fund

13. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA • African American, American Indian/ Alaska Native, Asian Pacific Islander American,and Hispanic American; • Citizen/ legal permanent resident or national of the United States; • Cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale at the time of nomination;

14. Value Proposition The GMS Scholarship Award provides: • Support for the cost of education • Renewable awards • Option to transfer • Graduate School Funding • Leadership Development programs

15. TOTAL SCHOLAR PROFILE Total = 4,705 Inactive Alumni Deferment Active African American American Indian Asian Pacific American Hispanic American Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

16. DISTRIBUTION OF ACTIVE STUDENTS IN THE GMS PROGRAM BY ETHINICITY AND ACADEMIC CLASSIFICATION 3% PhD Hispanic American MA Asian Pacific American Senior American Indian Junior African American Sophomore Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior MA PhD Freshman Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

17. ACTIVE SCHOLARS GENDER DISTRIBUTION Total = 3,204 Female Male 100% = 4,705 Male Male Female Female African American American Indian Asian Pacific American Hispanic American Overall Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

18. ACTIVE SCHOLARS PUBLIC/PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION Private Public Public Public Private Private Overall African American American Indian Asian Pacific American Hispanic American Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

19. AVERAGE AWARD DOLLARS Average Award Public Private Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior MA PhD Undergraduate Graduate Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

20. DEFERMENT PROFILE DISTRIBUTION Total = 521 Transitional Service Personal Medical Academic Asian Pacific American African American American Indian Hispanic American Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

21. DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS ATTENDING TOP 20 SCHOOLS Total = 4705 Total Scholars actively enrolled in a top 20 school Hispanic American Scholars attending schools outside the top 20 Asian Pacific American American Indian African American Asian Pacific American African American American Indian Hispanic American Overall Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

22. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION • Most of GMS scholars come from states with high concentrations of minority/ethnic population • High concentration of GMS Scholars are in schools located within states with high populations of ethnic minorities • The selection of undergraduate majors among GMS scholars seems uniformly distributed with a high skew towards biology and psychology Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

23. GPA REPORT Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

24. GRADUATE FIELD OF STUDY Total = 525 Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

25. GRADUATE FIELD OF STUDY Total = 525 Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

26. GRADUATE FIELD OF STUDY BY GENDER MASTER’S LEVEL Total = 359 PHD LEVEL Total = 166 Source: GMS program data of all cohorts year-to-date

27. Students' Voices and Graduate School Choices: The Role of Finances in the Lives of Low-Income, High-Achieving Students of Color Edward P. St. John Algo D. Henderson Collegiate Professor of Education Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education University of Michigan

28. Research Questions • How do undergraduates in the GMS program frame their choices about graduate education? • How do graduate students in the GMS program frame the role of finances in their choices?

29. Findings • Aspirations “It’s humbling, in a way. It’s intimidating, but it really is—wow, I can do that, too, because I’m one of them, where I’m supposed to be. And in that sense, that transition from a master’s to a doctorate, I now know a couple of names to call, like depending on the university.” • Graduate Enrollment “I was just going to take a semester off [after finishing the masters program] but they sent me a check. So I applied to sign up for a whole bunch more classes to finish up my credential just because I had all this money in my pocket.”

30. Findings • Choice of Field “There are only six different fields that are going to be paid for. And unless I say, oh, I’m going to get my teaching degree, they’re not going to pay for graduate school, which irks me because they’re saying, to everyone, you have to be a leader.” • Choice of Graduate Institution “And Stanford is like $40,000. That’s like bare minimum, like living on nothing. And minimum a doctoral program in my field is, four years, maybe. I guess being a Gates Scholar, it really does leave you more open, like I could still think about doctoral programs”

31. Findings Role of finances in choices - Faculty “I was working as a graduate assistant in the office, and I was responsible for posting on the scholarships information, so I had a heads up.” “I learned about the scholarship from my professors. . . . But I didn’t see Gates Millennium Scholarship there [on the web listing] until a month after my professor told me that, yes, there’s a scholarship available. You want to apply for that! He nominated me.”

32. Findings Role of finances in choices – Persistence “For me, it made a big difference knowing I was going to get the finance because . . . I had just finished the credential and I just finished my masters, and knowing that GMS would even pay for the doctoral program encouraged me, you know, to go and apply. And actually, the conference was very empowering. . .”

33. Conclusions • Being a GMS scholar will influence more students to aspire to attend graduate school (hypothesis 1). • The promise of GMS awards for graduate school will increase the chances that undergraduate GMS recipients will attend graduate school (hypothesis 2). • The prospect of receiving GMS awards increases the number of undergraduate scholars who select graduate programs in science/math, engineering, education, and library/information sciences (hypothesis 3).

34. Conclusions • Receiving GMS awards will enable more students to attend graduate schools at private universities (hypothesis 4). • Receiving a GMS award in graduate school will improve persistence in graduate school and degree attainment (hypothesis 5).

35. Gates Millennium Scholars: Capacity Building Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Shirley Hune Acting Dean of Academic Programs, Graduate Division University of California, Los Angeles & Gigi Gomez Research Analyst, University of California, Los Angeles

36. Research Questions • What are the characteristics of Asian American and Pacific Islander Americans in the GMS program? • What are some of their college experiences? • How does the GMS program contribute to capacity building among As AM and PI college students and their communities?

37. Findings Data analysis based on: • 384 As Am and 18 PI GMS • 2/3 (As Am) and ¾ (PI): Females • 50.9% (As Am) and 72.2% (PI): U.S. Born • 30.3% (As Am) and 44.0 % (PI): First-generation college-going students

38. Findings

39. Findings

40. Findings Majors

41. Findings • Work serves as capacity building • Basic Needs and Family Support • - expands educational participation • - reduces family debt burden • Work Experience • - enhances student career goals • - expands community and societal goals

42. Findings 1Baseline Survey; 2Follow-Up

43. Findings • Contending with accent discrimination • Pressures to fit into dominant Anglo culture • Challenges with racial climate and persistent stereotyping

44. Conclusions • Individual student & family level: • Reduces financial burden and increases college participation • Opens up college opportunities • Develops confidence and increases academic performance • Enhances peer role models for students of color • Community & societal level: • Increasing competencies of underserved As Am/PIA groups • Builds capacity for As Am/PIA women • Enhances leadership capabilities • Builds capacity in STEM fields

45. Gates Millennium Scholars: Building the Capacity of American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) John W. Tippeconnic, III, Ph.D. Susan C. Faircloth, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University

46. Research Questions • What is the profile of the American Indian/Alaska Native GMS? • What are the personal, professional and demographic characteristics of GMS American Indian/Alaska Native Scholars Logic Model: AI/AN GMS CAPACITY BUILDING Conditions Opportunity Individual Self-Determination Funding Community Higher Education Leadership Tribe(s) Barriers   Society

47. 912 Recipients 630 (69%) Female 282 (31%) Male Status Active - 563 (61.7%) Alumni - 160 (17.5%) Deferred - 48 (5.3%) Inactive - 141 (15.5%) Tribes Most Frequently Represented Cherokee Navajo Multiple Tribes Home States Most Frequently Represented Oklahoma - 280 (31%) Arizona - 105 (12%) New Mexico - 95 (10%) Findings

48. Findings First in family to attend college • Undergraduates 84 (35%) • Graduates 3 (17%) Grade point average • The average GPA was 3.2* • The median GPA was 3.35* *Preliminary findings not to be quoted or referenced at this time.

49. Top Majors Selected

50. Findings University/College Involvement during the past year • 49 (21%) often or very often participated in religious or spiritual activities • 41 (17%) often or very often participated in activities sponsored by groups reflecting their own cultural heritage • 33 (18%) often or very often participated in community service or volunteer activities *Cohorts I & II