Dr. Allison B Schwartz

The UWF GeoScholars program was designed based on the inherently interdisciplinary nature of geoscience research and careers. Specifically, we sought to demonstrate to undergraduate geoscience students the need for including content and skills from other academic areas, while also showing non-geoscience undergraduate majors the application of their fields of study to a range of geoscience topics, including climatology, soil science, and geomorphology. We secured NSF IUSE funding to pair faculty and undergraduate researchers from the UWF Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences with faculty-student partners from non-geoscience UWF departments, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Information Technology, and Mathematics & Statistics. Research team faculty mentors collaborated to identify an interdisciplinary geoscience research project that employed specific areas of interest and expertise from the geoscience and non-geoscience participants. Faculty then worked with the UWF GeoScholars directors to identify and recruit students from a targeted pool of eligible undergraduate students. Research teams then conducted related research, with students funded as part of the UWF Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and continuing through the subsequent academic year(s) culminating in each student presenting research at a regional or national geoscience conference, also attended by the non-geoscience faculty mentors. Additionally, the UWF GeoScholars program developed a series of professional development engagement activities that began in the UWF SURP program and continued in regular GeoScholars programs during the academic year. Professional development highlights included student researcher sessions with regional geoscience employers and representatives from national geoscience PhD graduate programs. Now in its third year, the UWF GeoScholars has facilitated multiple new interdisciplinary faculty collaborations, trained more than 20 undergraduate students in research and professional skills, and engaged regional industry partners with the University community as demonstration of the multitude of paths into the geosciences.