Achievement

The NSF funding decision was made in June 2012, after completion of nationwide graduate recruitment deadlines. Thus, our first cohort of six trainees was necessarily from new and first-year graduate students already at ASU. The trainees were selected based on their record, statement of interest, faculty recommendation and diverse backgrounds. An IGERT associate also participated in the first-year classes. Recruitment for the 2013 cohort included recruitment websites (an ASU IGERT website, http://igert.asu.edu/, an IGERT SUN website, http://graduate.asu.edu/igert-sun and an IGERT SUN Students website, http://graduate.asu.edu/students/igert_sun_6#.UUUadld0amA), visits to several colleges in California to recruit URM students and informational emails to targeted URM populations across the country. Based on these recruitment efforts we received over 30 applications for six slots open for fall 2013 with at least one URM application from the mass emailing approach.