As discussed in this and previous Roundtable workshops, a large income disparity exists among matriculants in medical school, noted workshop co-chair Lynne Holden in introducing the first panel focused on finances.1 Students from lower-income families are underrepresented in U.S. medical schools, and those who do matriculate often graduate with large amounts of debt. The first panel on this topic looked at programs offered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide support to undergraduate and graduate students. The second panel looked at larger-scale partnerships and systems, past and current, that affect the educational and career journeys of Black students in science, engineering, and medicine (SEM).
PERSONAL FINANCING—ALLEVIATING BURDENS
Theodore Corbin, M.D. (Rush University Medical Center) served as moderator to explore financial supports and programs available to Black students throughout their SEM educational journey, focusing on NIH and NSF. The speakers were Ericka Boone, Ph.D. (NIH) and LeRoy Jones II, Ph.D. (NSF).
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1 For information on the previous Roundtable workshops and proceedings, see https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/roundtable-on-black-men-and-black-women-in-science-engineering-and-medicine.
National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program
The Loan Repayment Program (LRP) at NIH falls under the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce. Dr. Boone noted a recent study showed that 88 percent of medical students have borrowed more than $135,000 and Ph.D.’s have borrowed more than $55,000 to sustain their education. Paying off this amount of debt requires paying about $1,600 per month for M.D.’s and $700 for Ph.D.’s. This debt can negatively affect the kinds of opportunities that students pursue, including whether they go into research or not, she said.
Each of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers (ICs) has its own research and research training agenda, focusing on particular diseases or body systems but with a unified goal to support the training and career development of the biomedical research workforce. This is where the LRPs become involved. Under the program, an individual commits to performing research in a mission-critical area for 2 years. NIH repays up to $100,000 of qualified education debt, as well as the resulting federal tax of 39 percent. The outcome for the nation, she said, is an increase in the stock of biomedical research scientists in critical fields. Current extramural LRP subcategories are related to clinical research, pediatric research, health disparities research, contraception and infertility research, clinical disadvantaged backgrounds, and research in emerging areas (see Figure 6-1).
Eligibility criteria include U.S. citizenship, doctoral degree, educational loan debt that is at least 20 percent of the researcher’s annual base income, and research funding from a domestic, nonprofit source. The investigator must spend at least 20 hours per week on the qualified research. The payments can be used to cover undergraduate to terminal degree loans. The overall success rate from 2018 to 2021 was 50 percent; the largest program is in clinical research.
Investigators in the program report the benefits include relief from a tremendous debt burden at a vulnerable career decision point, ability to pursue career-related passions without as much worry about salary, protected research time, practice/preparation for applying for other NIH grant mechanisms, and an added boost to career preparedness and productivity. They also report the importance of an ego boost to affirm, as Dr. Boone related, “you can do this. You are conducting work that is important and fundable.” Dr. Boone invited participants to apply and also urged them to obtain a Commons ID, which is needed for any NIH funding.2 NIH has a
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2 For more information, see www.lrp.nih.gov.
SOURCE: Erika Boone, Ph.D., Workshop Presentation, May 3, 2022.
Matchmaker Tool to highlight projects similar to an investigator’s research interests that ICs are already supporting and NIH program officers who have similar research in their portfolios. The ICs have LRP points of contact.3
Dr. Boone also called attention to the LRP Ambassador Network across the country that provides near-peer and peer-to-peer mentoring, as well as videos and tutorials about how to submit an application to the program.
National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources
NSF has many programs to support science and engineering research and education across its eight directorates. Dr. Jones focused on three within the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.4
Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
The Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program enables low-income students with academic ability, talent, or potential to pursue careers in promising STEM fields. S-STEM awards are provided to institutions. The institutions provide scholarships; adapt, implement, and study evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support their S-STEM scholars; test strategies to systematically support student academic and career pathways; and disseminate findings related to the supports and interventions they undertake. S-STEM awards cover the gamut, from associate’s to doctoral degrees, and in any field for which NSF provides research funding. Dr. Jones highlighted the eligibility criteria and pointed out that “projects are strongly encouraged to develop holistic selection criteria that look to identify talent in many ways.”5
Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation
The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program (NSF 20-590) implements strategies that focus on critical transition
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3 To connect with a particular IC, see https://www.lrp.nih.gov/contact-engage.
4 Dr. Jones invited participants to subscribe to NSF’s newsletter that provides information about funding opportunities at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USNSF/subscriber/new?qsp=823.
5 For more information on the S-STEM Program, see https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/nsf-scholarships-science-technology-engineering.
points to significantly increase the quality and quantity of historically underrepresented students successfully completing STEM B.S. degrees. Alliances are composed of universities and colleges, government labs, industry, and nonprofit partners (see Chapter 5 for an example). LSAMP focuses on students’ critical transition points. Project types include the following:
- Bridges to Baccalaureate Alliances, which focus on effective educational preparation of community college students for successful transfer into STEM programs at 4-year institutions
- STEM Pathways Implementation-Only and STEM Pathways and Research Alliance, which focus on the full STEM pathways but also serve as a hub for the production of scholarly STEM research and evaluation to increase the knowledge base and utilization in broadening participation
- Bridge to the Doctorate Activity, which provides postbaccalaureate fellowship support to a cohort of 12 students for the first 2 years of their STEM graduate studies
Based on research on how to prepare and retain students (Clewell et al., 2006; Tinto, 1975), the LSAMP model provides activities for academic integration, social integration, and professionalization (see Figure 6-2). There is a particular push for students to gain research experience, he added.
LSAMP now encompasses more than 50 alliances and 700 institutions within them. Dr. Jones reviewed the targeted groups, eligibility, and financial support. As with S-STEM, he noted the emphasis on holistic criteria in selecting students.6
Graduate Research Fellowship Program
In the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP; NSF 21-602), students apply directly for support. One of the oldest programs at NSF, begun in 1952, it has conferred more than 60,000 awards, including to 40 Nobel laureates. There are four levels of applicants, depending on the education already completed, but eligibility generally is for U.S. students pursuing master’s or doctoral STEM or STEM education degrees at U.S. institutions. Dr. Jones explained the components of the application
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6 For more information on LSAMP, see https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/louis-stokes-alliances-minority-participation.
SOURCE: LeRoy Jones II, Workshop Presentation, May 3, 2022.
process, which includes a two-page graduate research plan. He also pointed out a recent change in which a student can receive 3 years of support within a 5-year fellowship period. This way, a student can take a break and come back into the program. He also noted that students can move from LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate funding to the GRFP.7
DISCUSSION OF PERSONAL FINANCING OPTIONS
Dr. Boone and Dr. Jones stressed the importance of institutions being aware of these opportunities so they can, in turn, make students aware of them. Dr. Boone noted that an analysis conducted several years ago showed that LRP participants had higher rates of success in accessing other NIH funding. The format is similar to other early-career awards, so the applicants are already familiar with it. Other reasons, she posited, are that the individuals may already be “high flyers,” but their protected research time helps with their future success.
Regarding outreach, Dr. Boone said the best source of applications is networking and mentoring. Investigators who participate often spread the word to others. “Many do not know about this program, but it can be a life-changing opportunity for researchers,” she stated. She said it was important for her professionally and personally to share the information with as many young investigators as possible, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds who carry heavy debt loads. She underscored the significant difference that LRP can make in career opportunities. “I have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt go down to zero—imagine the difference that makes,” she said.
Dr. Jones encouraged participants to reach out to NSF program officers about opportunities at the agency. He noted other resources include capacity building, infrastructure development, and other ways for students and institutions, especially minority-serving institutions, to be competitive.
EXTERNAL FINANCING—SUPPORTING SYSTEMS
Larger-scale partnerships and systems that influence the educational and career pathways, both historic and current, were the subject of a panel moderated by Olujimi Ajijola, M.D., Ph.D. (UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center). Presenters on this panel were Bhashkar Mazumder, Ph.D. (Federal
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7 For more information on the GFRP, see https://www.nsfgrfp.org/.
Reserve Bank of Chicago), Tamara Thompson, M.B.A. (Thurgood Marshall College Fund [TMCF]), Chad Womack, Ph.D. (United Negro College Fund [UNCF]), and Brittany Mosby, Ed.D. (Tennessee Higher Education Commission).
The Effect of Rosenwald Schools on Black Socioeconomic Progress
Dr. Mazumder characterized the Rosenwald Schools as “the largest educational intervention you’ve never heard of.” The schools were built in communities in the South in the early 20th century to close the gap between the years of schooling completed by Black children and white children. This gap in 1910 was 3 years in the South, compared with 1 year elsewhere in the country, with no progress to close the gap. If Southern Black rural children even had access to a schoolhouse, it usually lacked basic infrastructure, and the school term was shorter than in white schools. Public funding inequities were not narrowing, and were even growing, in many places. Northern philanthropists saw this as untenable for development of the country, Dr. Mazumder said.
In the early 1900s, Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), developed a partnership with Julius Rosenwald, the head of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Rosenwald donated $25,000 and joined the Tuskegee Board of Trustees. Washington requested use of a small share of the donation to open six experimental Black primary schools near Tuskegee. Their success led to construction of other high-quality schools, first in Alabama and then throughout the rural South, using matching grants from the communities. By 1932, 5,000 Rosenwald Schools were built, educating more than one-third of the Southern school-aged population. Other features included quality teachers, state-of-the-art facilities, and longer school terms.
When Dr. Mazumder and co-researcher Daniel Aronson, Ph.D., began doing research on the schools, they found that no one had used data to look at the schools. But they also discovered that Fisk University had index cards about every school, including when they were built, in which counties, and other data that could be used to connect with Census records. When they linked children who grew up in counties with Rosenwald Schools, they found a large narrowing of the Black-white gap (see Figure 6-3).
Main findings included that Rosenwald Schools accounted for 40 percent of the closing of the Black-white school gap for cohorts between World War I and World War II and a closing of the Black-white test score
SOURCE: Bhashkar Mazumder, Workshop Presentation, May 3, 2022.
gap by about 0.1 standard deviations. They also increased the probability of moving North, having smaller families, greater life expectancy, and formation of NAACP branches.
Dr. Mazumder drew from his research to connect to the current day. He said Rosenwald Schools show the importance of large-scale major educational interventions to address seemingly intractable problems. Community involvement was critical to the success, and the schools served as community centers. The effects have resonated across generations, and they highlight the potential role of partnership between philanthropy, government, and local communities, he concluded.
Thurgood Marshall College Fund
Ms. Thompson introduced the work of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund by noting its linkage to the Rosenwald Schools and to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) community. TMCF was founded by Dr. N. Joyce Payne; inspired by Justice Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Payne
asked him whether she could name the organization after him. TMCF has been a champion for students and equity. Its mission is to ensure student success by promoting educational excellence and preparing the next generation of workforce talent through leadership development. The focus is on public HBCUs, where, Ms. Thompson noted, leadership is alive and thriving.8
Since its founding in 1987, TMCF has awarded more than $500 million, supporting 300,000 students in its 47 member schools (see Figure 6-4). For the past 18 years, the organization has placed students in professional opportunities at more than 250 employers in 32 states. Almost all (97 percent) TMCF scholars graduate, compared with 1 in 3 college freshmen who drop out of school before their second year. TMCF has awarded 53 percent of its scholarships to first-generation students. In the 2021–2022 academic year, TMCF awarded 2,300 scholarships to selected students at HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).9
To carry forward Justice Marshall’s legacy, TMCF works in five focus areas: student scholarships, equity and upskilling programs, capacity building, talent sourcing, and policy and advocacy. Funding for institutions and infrastructure are critical to support degree attainment by Black students. She noted a higher rate of Black students compared with white students leaving STEM majors: 40 percent of Black students versus 29 percent of white students. TMCF provides innovative funding to support degree attainment. Scholarships pay tuition and housing, as well as access to funds urgently needed to close gaps financially. Ms. Thompson shared the profile of many of the students served. She noted that 75 percent of first-year public HBCU students are Pell Grant eligible, which means their family income is $40,000 to $50,000 a year or less. Pell grants are on average $6,895, but the average need is about $21,000 after this and other institutional support is received, an amount impossible for a Pell-eligible family to provide. The TMCF scholarship support strategy is to close this funding gap, provide access, and offer support services so that students can focus on their studies and finish school. During COVID-19, for example, students could access funds to remain in school when they were displaced or family members lost income.
TMCF’s equity and upskilling support works to maximize what HBCUs can provide the STEM workforce. According to TMCF data, 40 percent of Black engineering professionals were educated at an HBCU. Only 9 percent
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8 For more information on TMCF, see https://www.tmcf.org/.
9 The Higher Education Act of 2008 defines PBIs based on enrollment and economic criteria. For the criteria, see https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/1059e#:~:-text=(6)%20Predominantly%20Black%20InstitutionThe,(B).
SOURCE: Tamara Thompson, Workshop Presentation, May 3, 2022.
of the STEM workforce are Black men and Black women. TMCF is able to engage 300,000 students who attend its member schools. “Upskilling” seeds and strengthens students with resources and skill enhancement that position them for professional success, Ms. Thompson explained. Experiential knowledge opportunities provide hands-on immersive and internship experiences to pipeline students into initial career position attainment. A large set of partners, including many major corporations, are involved.
In addition to student-facing opportunities, capacity-building programs are designed to ensure HBCU sustainability. She noted the average non-HBCU has 7 times the endowment of the average HBCU. Further, the average 4-year non-HBCU has $1.25 in endowment funding for every $1 in its budget; in contrast, the average 4-year HBCU has only $0.50 in endowment funding for every $1 in its budget. The HBCU Transformation Project has been launched to increase HBCU health and sustainability. Twenty HBCUs are part of the first cohort built on the idea that HBCUs are national treasures that are good for students and for the nation.
United Negro College Fund
Dr. Womack shared ideas and concepts to address African American participation in STEM. He recognized the work of TMCF and noted the discussion on the effect of the investments in the Rosenwald Schools was on point and connects with UNCF. UNCF was founded in 1944 by Frederick Patterson, who was president of Tuskegee Institute after Booker T. Washington. It began as a donor-advised fund specifically to support HBCUs. Since then, it has helped institutions and individuals thrive. On a personal level, Dr. Womack shared that he is a Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine graduate, and his parents graduated from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and the Institute for Colored Youth.
UNCF has pursued interventions in recognition of individual and institutional challenges, as well as structural and nonstructural barriers. Often in collaboration with others, the goal is to increase the number of African Americans in the pipeline who are thriving.
At the individual level, circumstances may challenge students’ ability to move from K–12 to college to career. The UNCF STEM Scholars Program has funded $50 million in grants in 2016 through its Fund II
Foundation.10 The program has shown the importance of both tuition and wraparound support for students with high STEM abilities who come from families at working or deep poverty levels. He noted UNCF does not dictate to recipients which school to attend, and about 40 percent wanted to attend HBCUs, but availability of scholarships was key. As noted earlier, HBCUs do not always have the resources to provide the level of support needed for lower-income students, and greater than 50 percent have attended Predominantly White Institutions in part because they could access more financial support. Greater than 92 percent of UNCF STEM scholars have graduated, and most have moved on to grad school, professional school, or the tech workforce.
Dr. Womack called attention to research collaborations between HBCU and R1 research faculty, such as the Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation that links Princeton research faculty with HBCU research faculty.11 He noted it is an example of how R1s can invest in relationships to build capacity so that HBCUs can independently expand their research capacity. Another example in the tech industry is a partnership of UNCF, TMCF, and Google, with a $50 million investment from Google.
Dr. Womack stressed the need for STEM identify formation, so that students are not just learning the content but also skills and abilities to develop a strong STEM identity. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group has become involved to support HBCUs. UNCF has also launched the Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Initiative to expose students to an entrepreneurial mindset and create high-performance STEM hubs on HBCU campuses.12 The goal is, through entrepreneurship, for students not only have to have access to jobs but also to create jobs when they graduate.
Dr. Womack expressed optimism that these and other programs continue to address structural and nonstructural issues to build STEM performance and outputs. He thanked UNCF sponsors and TMCF and other collaborators.
HBCU Success in the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative
Dr. Mosby said she would tie together the previous presentations
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10 For more information, see https://uncf.org/programs/fund-ii-uncf-stem-scholars/pages/stem-scholars-scholarship-overview.
11 For more information, see https://www.princeton.edu/news/2022/05/04/princeton-partners-uncf-and-hbcus-expand-research-and-innovation.
12 For more information, see https://uncf.org/programs/hbcu-ice.
and the role of HBCUs by referring to work by the late author and social activist bell hooks, who wrote, among other works, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (hooks, 1994). The network of HBCUs, historically and in the future, can fulfill the role of “teaching to transgress” in SEM fields, Dr. Mosby stated.
Tennessee’s HBCU Success program provides research and analysis, innovative programming, and meaningful convening to advocate for and pursue equity in state policies and programs on behalf of Tennessee’s historically Black institutions.13 On a day-to-day basis, she said she serves as “a liaison and head cheerleader for HBCUs across the state.” Among other activities, the office maintains an HBCU website and data collection, offers summer programs, and provides technical assistance.
In STEM fields, HBCUs have historically framed education as a practice of freedom, Dr. Mosby said. She quoted from bell hooks (1994), who wrote, “We learned early that our devotion to learning, to a life of the mind, was a counter-hegemonic act, a fundamental way to resist every strategy of white, racist colonization. Though they did not define or articulate these practices in theoretical terms, my teachers [Black women] were enacting a revolutionary pedagogy of resistance that was profoundly anticolonial.”
Dr. Mosby also drew from Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1970), who wrote that education is the means by which “men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” This is what historically Black classrooms have done, Dr. Mosby said, noting that “there is a precedent for student excellence and lives through the idea of education as a practice of freedom, centered around critical thinking and participation.” She continued:
Liberatory education … is transgressive and disruptive of the status quo; cares for the livelihood and soul of students; and is community and dialogue centered. It rests on a belief that education is more than the importing of knowledge; it is sharing in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. The ultimate goal of liberatory education is to change society, not create employable workers. The crux is where the HBCU falls. They have been bastions of transformational, not just transactional, education.
One of the elements of the “secret sauce” of HBCUs has been more
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13 For more information, see https://www.tn.gov/thec/hbcu-success.html.
than just the classes; it is the wraparound support, advising, and mentoring, Dr. Mosby said. “What I posit is that HBCUs must lean into that, fully embrace and return to their roots, their beginning mission as transgressive places of freedom to support students. She differentiated participatory, liberatory education to a banking method of education. Under this banking framework, the transfer of knowledge consists of the depositing of knowledge and the receipt of it by students.
A striking duality, she said, is that HBCUs produce 25 percent of African American STEM majors, although nearly two-thirds of HBCU students choose social science and religion as their majors. Dr. Mosby suggested this “not as a bug, but a feature” because these students are leaning into community-focused, service-oriented majors that embody liberatory education and the cultural tradition of focusing on the village. Rather than separate into disciplinary silos, she suggested HBCUs are strongest when all disciplines come together.
HBCUs, SEM, and the practice of freedom are uniquely positioned to be a liberating experience for students, Dr. Mosby continued. HBCUs are a gateway versus a gatekeeper to higher education. They disproportionally welcome Pell and first-generation students, and they are open to those who might not have other opportunities. They provide the opportunity to unlearn “banking method techniques” and can break the correlation of marginalized students and low performance in STEM fields.
“What that looks like is intentionally renewing the STEM curriculum to encourage Black and Brown STEM majors, and giving STEM knowledge to those who are not STEM majors,” she suggested. She noted an example several years ago when the rapper B.o.B. was criticized for tweeting about the Earth being flat. While there was exasperation with his tweets, a science writer pointed to his curiosity and search for explanations (Wade, 2016). Similarly, Dr. Mosby said, that is what an HBCU can do—not shut students down but encourage their curiosity and search for knowledge.
DISCUSSION OF EXTERNAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Planning committee co-chair Louis Sullivan, M.D., thanked the panelists, and noted his mother was a teacher at a Rosenwald School. One hundred years later, Black students are still suffering from the educational deficits that the Rosenwald Schools tried to address, he noted. The pipeline will be broader if more ways can be found to work with the K–12 system. He also underscored the Rosenwald School requirement of community
ownership and support. “The community role in the Rosenwald Schools was hugely important,” Dr. Mazumder agreed, and he quoted from Cong. John Lewis on this topic.
Dr. Sullivan asked Dr. Mosby about lessens that could be expanded to Predominantly White Institutions to educate more Black students. Dr. Mosby cited the University of Memphis as an example of an institution that has a growing Black population although it is predominantly white. Black students are coming to the university to have an “HBCU-esque experience.” However, she said HBCUs have a unique historical mission and culture that a larger state school cannot offer. “Each one has its niche,” she said. She noted that the Tennessee legislature awarded $250 million to Tennessee State University for infrastructure upgrades, scholarships, and other programs to address past inequities, but, she said, “It is still a long road to get to true equity.”
FINAL REMARKS
Dr. Sullivan noted the workshop presentations show the need to work in a cooperative fashion to solve the shortage of African Americans in STEM fields. It is important to look not only at the graduate and professional levels but also at K–12 and undergraduate education. “What we have learned is very important,” he said. “We have to find ways to work together, and this gives us ways to think about it. We need to do a better job as a nation, for all our citizens.”
In closing, workshop co-chair Lynne Holden, M.D., thanked the planning committee, speakers, and participants. She also thanked the other members of the Roundtable and the National Academies. Roundtable chair Cato Laurencin, M.D., thanked Dr. Holden and Dr. Sullivan as co-chairs. He also noted that the Congressional Black Caucus has supported the Roundtable from the start, and congressional language about it speaks to what the Roundtable can accomplish.
REFERENCES
Clewell, B. C., C. C. de Cohen, L. Tsui, and N. Deterding. 2006. Revitalizing the Nation’s Talent Pool in STEM. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/311299.html.
Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury.
hooks, b. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.
Tinto, V. 1975. Dropouts from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research 5(1):89–125.
Wade, L. 2016. In defense of Flat Earthers. The Atlantic (January 27). https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/flat-earth-bob-outside-physicist/431583/.
