Recruitment Partnerships

PATHWAYS TO THE DOCTORATE COLLABORATION GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

The Graduate and Professional School is accepting grant requests from departments and colleges at Texas A&M University to support mutually beneficial collaborations and fellowships that will increase the application, acceptance, and timely graduation of students from targeted underrepresented populations in Texas A&M University doctoral programs. These efforts seek to address a report from the Presidential Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion finding that Hispanic, LatinX, and Black and African American graduate student enrollment percentages are underrepresented when compared to the state's demographics. Funding for these grants and fellowships is provided by The Texas A&M University System, the Graduate and Professional School, and the Division of Research.

Pathways to the Doctorate Advisory Committee Members

Former members who also assisted in guiding this effort 

Round 1
Funded Collaboration Grant Proposals
November 15, 2021-May 30, 2023

Empowering Smart and Resilient Communities

Michelle Meyers, Shannon Van Zandt, Galen Newman, Chanam Lee, Deidra Davis, Xinyue Ye, Andrea Roberts, and Andrew Rumbach.

College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

This  proposal builds on our unique strengths as a department in urban planning and landscape architecture in the diverse array of scholarship related to community resilience. Within this focus, we will have five topical subthemes to attract students from various backgrounds, each of which is led by faculty with expertise in that area.  Advanced Undergraduate and Masters students at partner programs will participate in a workshop hosted at TAMU-College Station. The 3-day workshop is modelled off of the successful Bill Anderson Fund Workshops (an organization focused on increasing diversity in the hazards and disaster field). The workshop will include time working with a TAMU mentor on a research topic, learning more about research projects and topics available in this field and our department, and professional development sessions related to selecting a program, financing graduate school, mentoring, networking, and working in academe (coordinated by Van Zandt). Students will have a “home campus” mentor and a TAMU mentor who will continue to meet with the student regularly for a year as they develop their research idea into either a poster or paper for a conference. If the students are from TAMUS universities, they will participate in the Pathways Conference. Students will also have a peer mentor among our current PhD Students and spend time with our PhD student association and student networks.

Building Bridges: Inter-University Research Projects, Research Experience for Undergraduates, and URMs in Sociology

Pat Rubio Goldsmith, Mary Campbell, Alex Hernandez, Heili Pals, Ernesto Amaral, and Steve Garner

College of Liberal Arts, Department of Sociology

This project seeks to improve and expand existing mutually beneficial relationships between the Sociology Department at Texas A&M and the Sociology Departments at HSIs and HBCUs in Texas to increase the application, acceptance, and graduation of students from underrepresented groups. The project will develop collaborative research projects to funnel students into the REU program and ultimately into the graduate program, capitalizing on relationships with former students who are in departments across the state. Funding will be used to develop new shared research projects involving faculty at Texas A&M and at our partner institutions. Faculty at our partner institutions will identify undergraduate students to participate in the REU. The students will also be employed as research assistants at their home institutions, allowing our faculty at their home institution to mentor them before and after the REU program. Thus, the “building bridges program” will strengthen our ties with faculty and make the experience of REU students even more transformative. Their experience on the TAMU campus and with the TAMU faculty will facilitate their applications to our graduate program.

Partnerships in Culturally Responsive Leadership Through  Racial Equity and Justice Education Policy Summits (REJEPS)  and Higher Education Conferences (HEC)

Gwendolyn C. Webb, Chaddrick James-Galloway, Jean Madsen, and Glenda Mubosa

College of Education and Human Development, Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development

The PreK-12 and Higher Education Programs, as a part of the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resources (EAHR), at Texas A&M University (TAMU), is proposing to establish a leadership partnership with Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). The proposed project has goals to increase the recruitment, acceptance, retention, and graduation of scholars of Color in the Ph.D. programs at both institutions. The goal will be to recruit scholars, through networks from a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), and a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) will also become targeted institutions to support our efforts. A strategic emphasis on culturally responsive policy development in PreK-12 and Higher Education will be the focus. As a part of the recruitment efforts, the project proposes to provide summer research experiences and professional conferences on both campuses, for prospective students of Color, from throughout the State of Texas.  The Racial Equity and Justice Education Policy Summits (REJEPS) will be two-day experiences, led by leadership faculty members from TAMU and PVAMU. These foci will provide formal mentoring and professional development for prospective graduate students of Color from underrepresented populations, specifically Black/African American and Latinx/a/o students, who are interested in seeking a Ph.D. in PreK-12 Educational Leadership, and Higher Education, with an emphasis on culturally responsive educational policy development, thereby creating significant pathways to the Ph.D. at both institutions.