Preparing Students in Two-year Colleges for Geoscience Degrees and Careers
Date: 07/18/12 - 07/21/12
Location: University of Washington-Tacoma, WA

Building a strong and diverse geoscience workforce is a critical national challenge. Two-year colleges (2YCs) play an important role in increasing both the number and diversity of geoscience graduates. This workshop will develop resources, strategies, and recommendations for preparing students in two-year colleges for geoscience careers, either as geotechnical graduates or as geoscience majors at four-year colleges and universities. In addition, the workshop will explore the scope and potential for geoscience technical training (e.g., earth resources, environmental management, marine technology).

This workshop, cosponsored by COSEE-Pacific Partnerships, will bring together geoscience faculty and administrators from two-year colleges and four-year colleges and universities with representatives from professional organizations and government agencies. We will share successful practices in 2YC college-transfer and geotechnical workforce programs, research and internship programs for 2YC geoscience students, and geoscience careers and career resource, and will work together to develop new strategies and recommendations from the classroom to the national level.

The goals of this workshop are to:

• Identify and document the successes and challenges of programs, activities, and resources that support career preparation of 2YC students for the geosciences;
• Develop a vision for programs, resources, and materials to improve the preparation of 2YC students for geosciences careers and degrees;
• Explore strategies and make recommendations to increase the number and diversity of geoscience professionals coming from two-year colleges; and
• Establish a network of leaders who will promote and support activities that prepare 2YC students as geotechnicians and geoscience majors.

The workshop will include plenary talks, panelist presentations, small and large group discussions, individual presentations or posters, planning/writing sessions, and time for networking and collaboration. There is no charge for faculty to attend the workshop and our grants will support faculty participant travel expenses.

More information about the workshop is given on the workshop webpage, which also has a link to the online application form.

Application deadline: March 19, 2012

This workshop is part of the program, Supporting and Advancing Geoscience in Two-year Colleges (SAGE 2YC). SAGE 2YC is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and funding is provided by grants from the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education.

Contact Name: Jan Hodder
Contact Email: jhodder@uoregon.edu
URL: http://serc.carleton.edu/sage2yc/workforce2012/index.html

Return to Archived Event List