About the Center for STEM Diversity

We believe an equity-minded community must foster a campus culture and environment that is both inclusive and accessible for students from historically excluded backgrounds; to do so, we actively invite and celebrate the rich culture and ideas that inform their lived experience. In this space, we encourage students to articulate their needs and help us identify how best to meet them where they are.

At the CSD, we center academic success by engaging faculty, staff, and campus community members to create points of access for all students. We empower our students to exercise their agency of our students by providing them with the tools and resources needed to thrive academically. To accomplish this, we actively strengthen partnerships and DEIJ efforts that break down systemic and institutional barriers to those historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

We hold not only ourselves accountable to these efforts, but we seek to extend this work beyond the Center.

For Grant Purposes: NSF Broader Impacts

The Center for STEM Diversity exists in part to help faculty and staff develop ways to actively engage with a diverse population of science and engineering students. We also support faculty members who are deeply interested in exploring opportunities related to STEM education research, development, and implementation. For the National Science Foundation (NSF), this often connects directly to its requirements for addressing "Broader Impacts."

Of NSF's 12 categories of activities listed as "Broader Impacts," we align with the following:

Category 4 - Improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education
Category 5 - Broadening participation of underrepresented groups
Category 6 - Contributing to the development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce

If you are writing a grant proposal and need assistance in developing a plan to address broader impacts, please feel free to contact us.