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Strengthening the nation’s technological workforce, competing and expanding its relevance in the global economy, and maintaining personal as well as homeland security will be highly dependent on the quantity, quality, and diversity of the next generations of scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians. Production of a diverse generation of human resources with relevant, competitive skills is critical. However, so too is the need to raise an enlightened citizenry with cross-cultural experience and cultural awareness competency, with a broad worldview and global perspectives. These requirements are critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities of scholarly activity in a pluralistic global environment and positioning ourselves to capitalize upon them. Scholars with cross-cultural experience and competency are empowered to adapt and work collaboratively, nationally and globally, with scholars of different races, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Development of effective strategies to transform science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments for inclusion and to broaden the participation in STEM across cultures, socioeconomic standing, race, and gender in higher education has been a dominant topic of pedagogical interest of national priority in the last several decades. However, success in these endeavors is achievable only through systemic change and a cultural shift to address the underlying root causes of socioeconomic disparity, gender, and racial disparities and a paucity of cultural awareness among all educational stakeholders. STEM departments can only be truly transformed for inclusion through the development of sensitive, creative, and student-engaging curricula and targeted recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Formation of well-coordinated alliances spanning educational sectors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community engagement and outreach are also critical to promoting inclusive and broad participation in STEM education.

The first section of the chapter gives an introduction to various challenges, obstacles, and hindrances that prevent a successful transformation of K–12 science education as well as STEM departments in higher education for inclusion. The second section discusses historical perspectives of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) – the institutional profile, missions, and visions of UAFS as a regional university. Policies and strategies for addressing the socioeconomic disparity, faculty gender, and racial disparities and cultural competency awareness at UAFS are also highlighted in this section. Other approaches including targeted efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students, provision of financial assistance for students from low-income families, and a creative “Math-up” curriculum innovation to promote inclusive and broad participation in STEM at UAFS are highlighted in the latter section of the chapter. Formation of alliances between UAFS, local K–12 school districts, and governmental and non-governmental agencies to promote broad participation in STEM at UAFS are discussed. The last section of the chapter provides recommendations for adaptation and sustainability of strategies and efforts aimed at transforming national STEM departments for inclusion.

HBCUs are significant in their number and in the number of minority students they graduate annually. They are located across Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. They make up approximately 3% of the nation's institutions of postsecondary education. In 2001, they enrolled more than 14% of all Black students in higher education, and more than 30% of Blacks graduated with a baccalaureate degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2004). There are 40 four-year public institutions, 49 four-year private institutions, 11 two-year public institutions, and 5 two-year private institutions. North Carolina has 11 HBCUs, more than any other state. Alabama has nine HBCUs, and Georgia and South Carolina have eight each. Both Mississippi and Texas have seven HBCUs. The first HBCU, Cheyney University, was founded in 1837. It was followed by two other historically Black institutions, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (1854) and Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856).

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the climate and practice of undergraduate research in selected Science and Engineering departments at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge (SUBR), Louisiana, from 1994 to 2014. We briefly recall the long tradition of undergraduate research participation and the accompanying mentoring at SUBR. The establishment of the Timbuktu Academy in 1990–1991, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), followed two years of review of the literature in teaching, mentoring, and learning. The paradigm and Ten Strand Systemic Mentoring model of the Academy, with a major funding by the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR), have sustained a research-based and practice-verified creation of a highly supportive and challenging research eco-system for selected science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate scholars, one that integrates seamlessly education and research.

Entrepreneurship is viewed as essential to the future prosperity of Europe and creating societies that are socially and economically inclusive. The information communication technology (ICT) sector has been identified as an area of great entrepreneurial potential for Europe and yet the continent struggles to create global leaders in the digital startup space. In response to this challenge, the European Commission launched its Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan to stimulate and support young people to become entrepreneurs and exploit the potential of ICT, in terms developing new digital products and services. This chapter reports on a project to develop and deliver a series of pan-European summer academies for entrepreneurship training funded by Horizon 2020. The chapter details the process of developing the academies and offer reflections on the impacts of the project.

This chapter examines the integration of curricular and extracurricular approaches to learning.

The study is performed through a case study examination of leader development programs at the United States Naval Academy.

The Naval Academy’s organizational and pedagogical approaches are grounded in the science of experiential learning and seek to integrate classroom instruction with the myriad leadership opportunities that are inherent in the design and function of the institution. Highlighting the example of the Class of 1977 Gettysburg Leadership Encounter, we show the impact on leadership development of explicitly linking curricular and extracurricular programs, and describe various tools that have proved effective reinforcing those linkages.

Students involved in this and other experiential programs and activities are better able to transfer the knowledge acquired in the classroom to the practical experience of leading their peers, and they lead with more confidence and better effectiveness. We conclude that this kind of integration has the potential not only to benefit the individuals involved but also to generate data on learning and development which could then be leveraged to enhance leader development through evidence-based analysis, feedback, and basic research.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impacts coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had on US police academies’ production of police recruits.

The study used a national online survey of police academy directors in the USA, followed by purposive, semi-structured interviews of select academy directors. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data is combined in a mixed methods approach.

The findings suggest that academies experienced a range of impacts related to COVID-19. These impacts lead to more questions concerning how academies and state-level governing boards responded not only to pandemic-related challenges, but also to their willingness to accept more online and alternative curriculum delivery strategies.

Police academies are a required step in the production of new police recruits in the USA, but researchers have paid little attention to how academies operate. While exploratory, this study provides some insights into how this aspect of policing weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, and offers suggestions for future research, as well as policy implications.

Since joining Bennett College in 2008, Dr. Oh has directed 17 undergraduate students’ research projects in applied mathematics. The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Dr. Oh grants from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). The grants allowed her to mentor eight mathematics majors/minors in summer research for four years (2009–2012). Based on the four years of successful undergraduate research (UGR) experiences, she, together with Dr. Jan Rychtar from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), received funding for two summers National Research Experience for Undergraduates (NREUP), an activity of Mathematical Association of America (MAA), funded by the NSF in 2013 and 2014. During the six years of funded UGR, Bennett students made 33 presentations at regional, state, and national conferences; two teams won the outstanding student presentation award and first place for presentation. Three papers were published; two of them by Dr. Oh and one of them with a UGR coauthor. Three projects resulted in manuscripts. As a result of the UGR experiences in 2015, Dr. Oh received three more grants: the MAA NREUP, the NSF’s Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM), and the NSF’s Preparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematical Sciences (PIC Math) program awarded grants. A grant was also submitted to HBC-UP-Targeted Infusion Projects: Computational Mathematics at Bennett College.

Overall, the six years of UGR at Bennett College attained the three goals of: (1) enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education and research for a deeper appreciation in those disciplines; (2) supporting increased graduation rates in STEM undergraduate education of females; and (3) broadening participation in the nation’s STEM workforce as well as enrollments in graduate schools.

In 1979, Rosemary Pledger became the first female President of the Academy of Management (AOM). AOM, through scholarship and teaching about management and organizations, is well known for its contributions to the development of modern management theory. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the human and social influencers which enabled Pledger’s career success. She climbed to the top of her profession and became a role model for other professional women, especially in the academic field; she successfully cracked the glass ceiling.

The authors used a qualitative methodology as most appropriate to examine the research question of how Pledger used human and social skills to overcome barriers to career success. In addition to her biographical data, the authors analyzed 1,593 pages of documents from the AOM Archives at the Khell Center, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Pledger succeeded because she developed strong human and social capital critical for career success and career mobility. Becoming part of the top management team in three organizations – the AOM, the Southwestern AOM and the University of Houston – Clear Lake City is evidence of her skill in using her capital to crack the glass ceiling.

The limitation of author interpretation of secondary data is recognized.

This work illustrates the appropriateness of qualitative research, specifically, in placing important management figures in context, and it makes clear how human and social capital factors are critical to career success for women.

AOM’s contribution to the development of modern management theory is widely recognized; however, there is a lack of studies related to the career successes of AOM’s female leaders. This paper chronicles the career life of Rosemary Pledger who became the first female president of the AOM and a successful Dean and examines the factors that contributed to her career success despite the presence of a glass ceiling.