Managing and Sustaining Cultural Diversity in the Ocean Sciences

The impending complexity of managing our ocean resources and the increasing changes in the U.S. demographics require the scientific community to develop its intellectual capital fully to effectively provide sound science and management solutions.  Despite the strategies and progress made to improve ethnic diversity in the ocean sciences, there are still challenges in closing the gap in minority participation as well as creating an environment to foster long term career sustainability.  In effort to increase diversity in one influential science community, a consortium of public and private institutions was created, the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP), in 2008.  Participating institutions include the Marine Biological Laboratory, NOAA Fisheries Service, Sea Education Association, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Woods Hole Research Center, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Aimed at college juniors and seniors with some course work in marine and/or environmental sciences, PEP is a four-week course and a six-to-eight-week individual research project under the guidance of a research scientist and mentor. Thirty-two students have participated to date. Investigators from the science institutions served as course faculty and research mentors. We listened to experts regarding critical mass, mentoring, adequate support, network recruitment, and then built a program based on those features. Two years in we have a program that works and that has its own model for choosing applicants and for matching with mentors. Our challenges now are fine-tuning our match process, enhancing mentoring skills, preparing our students for a variety of lab cultures, and setting expectations high while remaining supportive and competitive.