The STARS Alliance: A Southeastern Partnership for Broadening Participation in Computing
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte proposed a system of regional partnerships, called the STARS (Students and Technology in Academia, Research, and Service) Alliance. The STARS Alliance is a partnership of more than a dozen colleges and universities in the Southeastern United States that collaboratively implement, disseminate, and institutionalize effective practices for recruiting, bridging, and graduating students from the underrepresented groups in computing.
The Members include:
- Auburn University
- Florida A&M University
- Florida State University (College of Communication and Information)
- Georgia Southern University
- Georgia Tech University
- Hampton University
- Landmark College
- Meredith College
- North Carolina A & T University
- North Carolina State University
- Seminole State College
- Shaw University
- Spelman College
- St. Augustines College
- University of New Orleans
- University of South Carolina at Columbia
- University of South Florida – Lakeland
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Virginia Tech
The STARS Mission
The STARS Alliance is structured as five local alliances or “stars”, each including research, minority-serving and women’s institutions, K-12 schools, industry, and community groups. Alliance activities will build on existing diversity efforts at each of the stars, pooling expertise and resources, to consolidate, scale, replicate and sustain efforts across multiple institutions and populations. Stars Alliance members implement “best practices” interventions with an integrated focus on:
- Recruiting to motivate students to enroll in computing disciplines or computing prerequisite programs of study through engagement and clear articulation of career opportunities and potential career paths.
- Bridging to provide support systems and extra-curricular training for students without computing prerequisites to become eligible to enroll in computing disciplines.
- Retention to support students in computing, as well as potential computing students at the freshman/sophomore university level, community college, and middle to high school students, to persist towards matriculation.
Learn more about STARS Alliance
Student Leadership Corps
Specific activities include a Student Leadership Corps (SLC), a variety of committees and task forces to facilitate the exchange of information across the alliance, a web portal to disseminate information on the alliance and host a repository of socially relevant projects, a Marketing and Careers Campaign, curricular changes, and a yearly STARS workshop. The SLC is the core of these programs, providing multiple touch points for students to find information and support throughout their academic journey.
- The SLC will foster an extended student community among students, academia, industry and community through civic engagement, mentoring, and professional development and research experiences.
- All SLC students will attend an alliance-wide, week-long summer workshop to promote community building and prepare the students for their upcoming SLC assignments.
- Possible assignments include Outreach Ambassadors to 7th through 12th grades, service learning that uses their computer skills for community projects, research and internship experiences, and peer mentoring.
