In this issue:

Are Minority Graduates with Recently Acquired Science and Engineering Degrees Continuing their Education after Graduation?

My Vision of an AGEP Community

An Interview with Dr. Hector Flores

From Their Voices: American Indians In 
Higher Education And The Phenomenon Of Stepping Out

Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Retention Database

A Profile of an AGEP Institution: University of Florida

From the editors

Managing Editor:Yolanda S. George
Editor: 
Virginia Van Horne
Art Director:
Ann Williams

Making Strides is a free, quarterly (April, July, October, and January) research newsletter published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Directorate for Education and Human Resources Program. Its purpose is to share information about minority graduate education in the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering. It is available in print and electronic format. Inquiries, information related to AGEP, and all correspondence should be sent to the editor. 

By Roosevelt Johnson, AGEP Program Director, National Science Foundation

The Minority Graduate Education (MGE) program was renamed the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program in December, 1999. The name reflects two very important areas of evolution in the MGE program: administrative strategy and objectives.

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at NSF has had considerable success in increasing the number of underrepresented minority students receiving baccalaureate degrees in Science, Math and Engineering (SME) fields. During a December, 1999 meeting of MGE Principal Investigators, several MGE projects voluntarily formed institutional alliances to more cooperatively accomplish the overall goals of the MGE program. The evolution of MGE to AGEP, consequently, reflects NSF’s belief that comprehensive, coordinated institutional partnership strategies similar to those in the LSAMP program will be more successful than the single institution funding strategies of the past at significantly increasing the number of underrepresented minorities receiving doctoral degrees in SME fields. Additionally, the program will now more proactively develop strategies and direct resources to the goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities prepared for faculty positions in SME departments.

The implementation of an alliance-based strategy affords tremendous opportunities to develop increased synergy among AGEP/MGE projects. As the newly appointed AGEP Program Director, I envision the effective linking of AGEP/MGE projects with other federally funded projects (e.g., LSAMP) on regional and national levels to create a dynamic community of institutions working together to identify and nurture minority talent in SME areas. The goal is to develop more effective linkages that will offer minority students increased opportunity to progress through the educational continuum from undergraduate through graduate school and into faculty positions. I consider the establishment of that sense of community among AGEP projects and other federally funded projects to be one of my most important administrative challenges.