Impacts of Undergraduate Research Programs Focused on Underrepresented Minorities: Twenty Years of Gradual Progress and Practices That Contributed to It

Two decades ago, when the author evaluated the impacts of Summer Research Opportunity Programs focused on minority undergraduates in STEM at 15 universities, blacks, Latinx/Hispanics, and Native Americans were dramatically underrepresented among PhD recipients in STEM fields. In the 20 years that followed, there have been significant increases in the representation of blacks and Latinx among STEM PhD recipients. The author discusses changes in research programs focused on underrepresented minorities over the last two decades, as well as the best practices that have not only enabled underrepresented minority participants to succeed in graduate school but also may improve the outcomes of any research program attempting to recruit and retain more undergraduates in STEM.