Collaboration Between Wake Tech & NC State University Gretchen L.

Collaboration Between Wake Tech & NC State University Gretchen L. Miller Natural Sciences Department Wake Tech Community College Raleigh, North Carolina [email protected]

About Wake Tech Largest community college in North Carolina – Over 28,000 curriculum students – Approximately 49% are minorities Introductory Geology at Wake Tech – 8 full-time faculty, 2 adjunct faculty – 735 students this semester

Partnership with NC State University NSF Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) grant: Diversity in the Geosciences, Making a Pathway to Success – Wake Tech students participate in paid summer research internships at NC State – Students present their research projects at a poster session at the end of the summer – Program has been very successful in first 3 years This work partially supported by the National Science Foundation award GEO-1107916. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Supporting Majors at Wake Tech All Wake Tech faculty actively involved – Identifying students in introductory geoscience courses with interest and aptitude – Individual mentoring of interested students Research Projects at NC State 2012 2013 2014 Number of Applicants 12 15 27 Students Matched to Research Project 9 10 13 Students Completing Research Project 8 8 12

Support with Transfer Process Most Wake Tech geoscience majors transfer to NC State University due to proximity Many students start taking geoscience classes at NC State while still completing A.S. degree at Wake Tech