ILSPRA is a five-year, $3.9 million, National Science Foundation (NSF)(Award Number HRD-1911341) supported suite of programs and initiatives aimed at contributing to the academic success of "underrepresented racial and ethnic minority student" (URMs) groups in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at participating Illinois postsecondary education institutions. 

 

The following student populations are the intended beneficiaries of the program: 

• American Indians Students

• Alaska Natives Students

• Black Students

• Latinx/a/o Students

• Native Hawaiian Students

• Native Pacific Islander Students

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In 2019, our Loyola University Chicago based research team was selected to design and execute the research and knowledge generation component of the grant. Over the five years of the grant we will focus on producing and sharing innovative and useful insights into whether and how the efforts of institutions in the Alliance enhance and sustain URMs access to and success in STEM fields. 

Accordingly, the ILSPRA research agenda seeks to answer two distinct but overlapping research questions:

1. In what ways does participating in the alliance’s unique mentoring model inform the persistence and success of URMs?

2. How do institutions committed to the success of URMs engage in the process of organizational learning in response to the introduction of a new initiative?