Geoscience ambassadors: An extracurricular college-level program for transforming relationships to the geosciences through student-crafted stories

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conjecture map for the theory of change developed in the geoscience ambassadors program. Structure modified after Sandoval (2014).

Table 1. Diversity in the geoscience ambassadors program relative to school, university, state, and national populations. HM stands for “historically marginalized,” that is, racial and ethnic identity groups that have historically been designated by the national science foundation as underrepresented in STEM fields, namely individuals who identify as hispanic, black or African American, or Native American. Participants’ gender was categorized based on self-reporting. These categories have been chosen for the purpose of rough statistical comparison with populations (i.e., school, university, discipline), and are not meant to reflect programmatic priority or preference relative to other identity groups.

Composition	Female	HM
Geoscience ambassadors N = 37	64.9%	32.4%
Jackson school of geosciences undergraduate, enrolled 2020	44.5%	16.4%
The University of Texas at Austin Undergraduates, all majors 2020	54.4%	31.4%
State of Texas School-age Population: 2020 (Texas Education Agency, 2020)	NA	66 %
Geosciences nation-wide Undergraduate degrees 2013–2017	40–42%	7–11%

Figure 2. General diagram of the three main overlapping components in the geoscience ambassadors program. Arrows indicate interactions between these components as developed by Ambassadors when crafting their personal stories.

Figure 3. Examples of pathway maps designed by geoscience ambassadors during the program. ambassadors either drew maps by hand (a–c) or designed it as an image file (d).

Table 2. Pathway elements considered by students when answering question ‘(1) How did I get here?’.

	Pathway elements	Expanded description
1	Personality	Traits
2	Personal strengths	Talents/attributes/capacities
3	Formative experiences	Experiences that move a person from one equilibrium position to another.
4	Decision points	Pivotal experiences/events or catalytic (defining) moments. A spark that changed your course
5	Culture, values, ethics, esthetics	Love the outdoors, care about environmental social justice issues, etc.
6	Goals / motivations	Values-based, monetary, status, job stability, travel, family
7	Influencers	People and organizations
8	Alterity (otherness)	Different from the norm
9	Counter narratives	Different point of view or action taken
10	Challenges	Perceived personal weaknesses, academic issues, family, geography, events, advice received, etc.
11	Breaches	Major disruptive experiences…personal and family situations and events (e.g., hurricane, earthquake)
12	Geoscience identity	Sense of belonging to the community of practice. I fit in!

Table 3. Pathway elements considered by students when answering questions ‘(2) Where am I going?’ and ‘(3) How will I get there?’.

	Category	Pathway elements/opportunities
1	Academic enrichment	Courses taken in another department other than those required for a geoscience major
2	Experiential Learning	REU, internships, participation in research projects, etc.
3	Professional Development	Presenting research at professional meetings; attending short courses
4	Serving Others/ Community	Volunteering, service learning, outreach
5	Leadership	Membership in leadership development organizations, awards
6	Mentoring/ Networking	Organizations, attending professional meetings, peer-peer interaction, advisers, etc.
7	Social Capital	Social relations w/ productive benefits; the goodwill available to individuals or groups.

Table 4. Example template used by ambassadors for community interviewing. Selected examples from geoscience ambassadors’ interview scripts (Ellins et al. 2021).

Goals	Interviewee	Example questions and prompts	Example target information
LEARN ABOUT COMMUNITY	Member of U.S. Armed Forces (active or separated)	Tell me about your service.   Do you plan to go to college/ university upon separating from the armed forces? How did the Transition Assistance Program (TAPS) help you in your pursuit of your education? What career resources would you have liked?	Perceptions regarding separation from military and ideas of future work/career Pathways and support for socioeconomically disadvantaged students and military veterans
	H.S. Teacher	How do students view geosciences at this school? How do you (teacher) view geosciences? How does the community view geoscience? What are the values of the community?	How geosciences are taught and perceived in schools. Student career plans and how they are formed
FEEDBACK FOR DESIGN	Member of the U.S. Armed Forces (active or separated)	I am considering talking to some influencers at Fort [NAME] about the geosciences as a career pathway. Who would you recommend as an influencer? What are their greatest career concerns of veterans and active-duty service personnel?	Input to plan and customize community outreach Type of outreach that can be implemented and delivery platforms/ approaches Activity restrictions Ideas for activities that can change how students perceive the geosciences as a career. Best meeting places and times
	H.S. Teacher	How can I best engage students when talking about STEM/the Geosciences? How should this be conducted (e.g., virtual presentation, classroom presentation, student meetups and/or fieldtrip) Are there restrictions for local field trips?
SHARE INFORMATION	All	Geoscientists work in many different professional occupations and career fields. Geosciences as a degree can be applied to real world jobs in many different settings, including rural and urban areas. Geoscientists make the planet a better place to live.  Employers pay geoscientists competitive salaries.  There are State and Federal educational benefits and scholarship opportunities, including for Veterans (e.g.,  the U.S. Army Pathfinder Program) There is an ongoing effort to increase diversity in the geosciences.	Geoscience careers, job opportunities, and salaries. Address predictable misconceptions held by interviewees and key career influencers.

Table 5. Geoscience ambassadors program value creation organized into the stages of the value assessment framework (Wenger et al., 2011).

Value stages	Evaluative questions	Indicators of value
1. Immediate value: Activities and Interactions leading to Productive Activities	What happened and what were participants’ experiences of it? Did participants perceive the program to be a valuable use of their time? Did they perceive their changemaking/ outreach activities to be meaningful? What was participants’ perception of information shared through the program?	Activities were enjoyed, helpful, productive, inspiring.
2. Potential value: Knowledge Capital leading to Robust Resources	How were participants changed in terms of their learning, social positioning, access to resources?  Shared experiences To what extent did participants learn from others? To what extent did participation contribute to a professional identity in a community of practice? Social capital To what extent do the social relations and connections that were formed support knowledge capital creation? To what extent does participation build shared understanding and collaboration among participants? Resources (tangible capital) What specific documents, tools, procedures, and networked information sources facilitate access to information? Collective intangible assets (reputational capital) How were assets such as the program webpage with ambassadors’ personal narratives, video stories and descriptions of outreach activities deployed? Transformed ability to learn (learning capital) To what extent were ambassadors able to transfer this experience to other contexts? To what extent did ambassadors recognize the relevance of DEI?	New knowledge, skills, perspectives, identities New relationships and connections New / better access to resources, assets, tools Enhanced reputation based on products (e.g., program webpage with ambassadors’ personal narratives, video stories and outreach activities) Demonstrated ability to learn and change
3. Applied value: Changes in Practice leading to Promising Practices	What difference has participation made to day-to-day work and learning practices? To what extent did ambassadors adapt and apply what they learned to a specific situation?	Specific examples of knowledge applied in a new context or changed practices related to learning, work and communication.
4. Realized Value: Improved Performance leading to Return on Investment	What difference has the program made in participant ability to achieve what matters? What is the impact on what matters to their stakeholders that apply a new practice?  What is learned from the Geoscience Ambassadors pilot study about the population/ community response to new ideas and practices? What unanticipated barriers or benefits emerged? How can these findings be used to modify the program?	Achievement of participants’ stronger identities Progress toward culture change Positive responses to barriers and challenges Successful program modifications
5. Reframing value: Redefining Success leading to New Value Framework	Has the program changed understandings and definitions of what matters? How does the Geoscience Ambassadors program transform existing structures or create a new framework that broadens participation of diverse identities in geoscience?	New ways of understanding, measuring success and value at individual and collective levels

Table 6. Data sources and types.

Source	Data Types
Participant observation	Fieldnotes and analytical memos
Artifacts of participation	Archived ambassador written reflections, website profile pages, pathway maps, draft pathway stories, videos and materials for designed changemaking activities
Interviews	Transcribed recordings of interview
Focus groups	Transcribed recordings of focus group talk
Program process and participation	Tabular data and records of recruitment, enrollment and participation Archived communications and tabular records of implemented changemaking activities, including types of audiences and estimated size of audience reached.

Figure 4. Extended timeline of the geoscience ambassadors program for a given cohort, from the first meeting to final presentations by ambassadors. Boxes branching off from the main timeline (in orange) show goals and activities (in green) for Ambassadors at each step of the program, and outputs of value to targeted communities outside the program (in blue and black).

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