Goal 3: Objective 3.4 | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

Goal 3: Expand, Diversify, and Support Our Community

Objective 3.4: Prepare more students from diverse backgrounds to become the next generation of professional leaders and scholars in health and human development.

Action Item 3.4.1

Implement a holistic review process that better recognizes the potential of all prospective HHD applicants in the awarding of graduate fellowships.

Implementation Tasks

Develop and pilot a rubric to evaluate nominees for graduate fellowships (University Graduate Fellowships, Distinguished Graduate Fellowships, Bunton-Waller Assistantships, Graham Fellowships) with a subcommittee of Graduate Professors-in-Charge
Evaluate use of rubric as part of holistic review in awarding graduate fellowships
Distribute rubric and process to full group of Graduate Professors-in-Charge.
Award all fellowships based on holistic review

Responsible party: Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education

Metrics: Increased number of fellowship offers extended to diverse candidates.

Start and end dates: Spring 2021-Spring 2023 (all fellowships awarded based on holistic review), then ongoing.

Action Item 3.4.2

Evolve graduate program admission criteria toward being based on a holistic review process that better recognizes the potential of all prospective HHD applicants.

Implementation tasks

Create a time-limited Task Force comprised of Graduate Professors-In-Charge, Unit Graduate Admissions Chairs, Graduate Students/HHD Reps from the Graduate Student Council to review progressive holistic graduate admissions approaches
Task Force presents recommendations on best practices for holistic review to the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Unit Leadership.
Requirement set by Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education for all programs to integrate a potentially flexible, minimum subset of best practices on a set timeline.

Responsible party: Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Unit Heads charge to Graduate program directors and Graduate Admissions Committee Chairs.

Metrics: All graduate programs integrate some holistic review best practices into their graduate application review processes.

Start and end dates: Fall 2022-Spring 2023 (Task Force), implementation Fall 2023 - ongoing.

Action Item 3.4.3

Create resources that support and incentivize pursuit of training grants and related extramural funding opportunities (R25, diversity supplements, foundation grants) that incorporate a focus on diversity

Implementation Tasks

Offer a college-provided stipend bonus for extramurally funded training grant postdoctoral fellowship slots that are reserved for candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Develop a course-release program to support faculty pursuit of external funding that is geared to increasing the diversity of HHD undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate students.
Provide central support and faculty releases needed to assure HHD’s participation in the Partnership for Faculty Diversity post-doctoral fellowship program.

Responsible Party: Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and he Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Outreach.

Metrics: Mechanisms developed and widely publicized to faculty and applications for external funding to support training initiatives with some focus on educating students form diverse backgrounds up 50% during this five-year period compared to the past five-year period.

Start and end dates: Spring 2021- Fall 2023

Action item 3.4.4

Coordinate efforts across individual graduate programs throughout HHD’s academic units to reach and interest applicants from under-represented groups.

Implementation Tasks

Bring all academic unit stakeholders together at least twice per year to share successful local practices
Explore construction of a collaborative outreach model across academic units, coordinated centrally

Responsible Party: Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, Graduate Professors in Charge, and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion

Metric: Regular meetings established consensus reached on value of pursuing aspects of outreach centrally.

Start and end dates: Fall 2022 – ongoing.

Action Item 3.4.5

Develop a college-level, cross-program peer support network(s) for graduate students and postdocs from diverse backgrounds.

Implementation Tasks

Engage graduate student community (through Graduate Student Council and Academic Program student groups) and college post-doc community (through direct outreach) in a process to determine best structure for peer-support network
Create and resource graduate/postdoc cross-program peer-support-network(s) for HHD graduate students and postdocs from diverse backgrounds to meet, create community, support scholarship and advance professionalism.
Develop strategy to collect feedback from participants annually.

Responsible Party: Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Diversity and Inclusion Office

Metric: A standing program is established for HHD graduate students and postdocs, to begin in Fall 2022.

Start and end dates: Fall 2022 - ongoing

Key Performance Indicators

Increased numbers of students from under-represented minority groups admitted to HHD’s graduate programs and increased sense of community among graduate students from diverse backgrounds across our programs.