EXCITES Network

Expanding academic Careers through Inclusive Transitions in Environmental Science (EXCITES) Planning Grant is a National Science Foundation supported project (#2325476) at the University of New Mexico aims to expand, foster, and embed support for students at Minority-Serving Institutions in environmental science (broadly defined). EXCITES focuses on supporting scholars at two specific transitions when student-scholars are at risk of leaving the field: moving from undergraduate to graduate studies, and from graduate studies to their long-term career in industry or academia. 

Towards this goal, we aim to increase capacity for culturally responsive mentorship and pedagogy that can foster and sustain emerging, diverse scholars through high impact strategies embedded in successful programming. One way we seek to do this is to develop a network of minority serving institutions (MSIs) in the Southwest region. We also aim to develop equitable and sustainable partnerships with local organizations to enable these scholars to engage in place-based research that addresses community-identified human-environmental needs.