Collaborative Research: Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM (AASD-STEM)

The “Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM” is a collaborative effort involving Auburn University, Tuskegee University, Alabama State University, and Auburn University at Montgomery, Southern Union State Community College, the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, and six school districts in East-Central Alabama: Lee, Chambers, Elmore, Montgomery, Macon, and Tallapoosa County school systems. The Alliance has the following four major goals:

Goal 1: Increase the Quality of Students with Disabilities Completing Associate and Baccalaureate Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Disciplines;

Goal 2: Increase the Number of Students with Disabilities Completing Associate and Baccalaureate Degrees in STEM Disciplines and entering STEM graduate degrees or STEM workforce;

Goal 3: Increase the Number of Students with Disabilities Completing Graduate Degrees in STEM Disciplines; and

Goal 4: Increase the number of high school students with disabilities going to college.

This unique Alliance, which includes two Historically Black Universities, Tuskegee University and Alabama State University, builds upon established STEM bridge programs to include female and minority students with disabilities. The Alabama Alliance has an internal evaluation team and an external evaluator who will lead the independent formative and summative project evaluations.

Overtoun Jenda 

jendaov@auburn.edu

Principal Investigator and Project Director

Ash Abebe

abebeas@auburn.edu 

Co-Principal Investigator

This program is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant numbers HRD 0929268, 0929276, and 0929248.