The Southern and Central Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SCI-LSAMP), consisting of six institutions in Southern and Central Illinois, has recently been established by a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation.

The participating institutions are the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (lead institution), Bradley University, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Southern Illinois University, and Western Illinois University. Together, these universities offer 119 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) baccalaureate degree programs. SCI-SLAMP will work to increase the number of students who obtain STEM undergraduate degrees and progress into STEM graduate degree programs or workforce, particularly among students who identify with a group underrepresented.

On Illinois State’s campus, SCI-LSAMP activities will be led by Dr. Rebekka Darner, director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology, and Dr. Mahua Biswas, associate professor in the Department of Physics. The selected LSAMP scholars will be supported by a stipend, academic coaching, professional development, research experiences, and an annual SCI-LSAMP Conference.

The SCI-LSAMP Summer Research Program (SRP) will invite scholars from across the alliance to participate in mentored research at any of the participating institutions, which represent a continuum of research opportunities. This summer exchange of scholars among partnering institutions will allow them to expand their network by making connections at research-intensive institutions and facilitate applications to graduate programs, thereby increasing the diversity of partnering institutions’ STEM graduate student applicant pools.

Eighty-five faculty members, who represent a broad range of interdisciplinary research areas across the six institutions, have expressed interest in mentoring a SCI-LSAMP scholar. Ultimately, SCI-LSAMP will leverage our institutional programs and provide broader support, peer networks, and opportunities to students that are not possible without this program.