Creating collaborative developmental communities: A pipeline to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education

Creating real change in the number and demographic proportions of students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) careers is a task that requires a community effort. It requires the active support and involvement of school systems, industries, governmental agencies like NASA, local communities, institutions of higher education as well as potential employers to create an environment that welcomes the best and the brightest students, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or disability. By joining forces with local schools, communities, and institutions of higher education, we can develop and maintain effective and seamless pipelines through which students who wish to pursue careers in STEM fields can have a clearly defined and well supported path to success. We can become the support network that students from populations that do not traditionally pursue these careers lack. In short, we are combining forces to collectively \´inspire the next generation". This paper presents the early partnership results between NASA-UMES summer internship program (NUSIP), a university program and the science technical and engineering pipeline for underserved populations (STEP UP), a high school program. It presents the highlights of the interaction and collaborative efforts of the programs.