Replicating Meyerhoff for inclusive excellence in STEM

Undergraduate diversity is fostered across many contexts Ethnic minorities comprise rapidly growing portions of the populations of most developed countries ( 1 ) but are underrepresented in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ( 2 , 3 ). Efforts to increase diversity in the STEM workforce, important for developing more effective approaches to group problem-solving ( 4 – 6 ), have been under way in the United States for decades, but widespread impact remains relatively low ( 3 ). The Meyerhoff Scholars Program (MYS) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), provides a promising model for increasing retention and academic performance of underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduates in STEM and for preparing those undergraduates to pursue and succeed in graduate and professional programs ( 7 , 8 ). Although MYS is nearly 30 years old and outcomes for African-American STEM majors have been extensively documented [see ( 7 , 8 ) and references therein], no other majority university [not meeting the definition of being a minority-serving institution (MSI) ( 9 )] has achieved similar outcomes ( 10 ). We describe here some promising early indicators that an interinstitutional partnership approach can help enable MYS-like outcomes at majority universities with different URM compositions, geographies, and institutional sizes and cultures: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and Pennsylvania State University at University Park (PSU).