Programs

STARS programs and events are designed to build capacity, ignite action, and foster
community for broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computing.

Programs for Organizations

STARS Leadership Corps

Interested in using computing to address issues of social justice, including addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in computing?

The STARS Leadership Corps (SLC) is our proven, flagship program for building capacity and igniting action for BPC. In the SLC, college faculty support college student teams to develop and lead service learning projects that are grounded in providing equitable access to inclusive computing education as an issue of social justice, provide a socially relevant context for CS knowledge, and present opportunities for meaningful practice of CS skills; building these connections and skills through SLC participation is a key part of the STARS approach to increasing persistence in computing degree programs.

The SLC incorporates best practices in service learning, including student co-creation of projects; team-based training and execution; and reflection. STARS provides BPC training opportunities for STARS faculty and SLC cohorts through the STARS Celebration and webinars. Each SLC cohort works together to identify service learning projects that leverage their collective computing knowledge, individual skills, and institutional resources to address the local context and needs for broadening participation. SLC cohorts often select outreach projects that provide CS learning opportunities to pre-college students, but faculty leaders may also steer SLC projects to address departmental needs (e.g., implementing peer instruction as an inclusive CS education practice) or to support socially relevant research projects that advance students’ knowledge and increase engagement in computing. SLC cohorts carry out their service-learning projects during the academic year, supported by STARS webinars on leading successful service-learning projects, evaluating BPC activities and their impact; and computing skills/professional development.

Interested in starting a STARS Leadership Corps chapter at your institution? Join the STARS Academic Alliance!

INTuitN: S-STEM Research Hub

The S-STEM Hub Project, INTuitN-STEM, led by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, explores how low-income students navigate non-tuition expenses. Leveraging the infrastructure of the Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP), a nationwide network, the Hub assesses students' basic needs and institutional capacity, fostering a comprehensive basic needs ecosystem. Community colleges with S-STEM programs are invited to join a multi-year research partnership, receiving NSF support and a $10,000 grant. For other community colleges, participation is free, offering access to a supportive community through online convenings and resource sharing. Research partner institutions face minimal time commitments, devoting approximately 10 staff hours per semester, making this initiative both impactful and accessible.

Programs for Students

STARS AI Scholars

This program provides college students in computing, informatics, and data science with opportunities to learn about AI, engage in projects for teaching K12 students about AI, and develop their leadership skills in broadening participation of historically excluded groups in computing. STARS AI Scholars will coordinate with a faculty or staff advisor at their institution/organization to participate in a project that supports local efforts for broadening participation in AI, often through a student organization or even for course credit, and connect with our national STARS organization for resources through quarterly webinars and an annual in-person conference. STARS AI Scholars who complete the program requirements will be eligible for a stipend of up to $1000 once their leadership/outreach project has been completed.

We strongly encourage STARS AI Scholars program applicants to be part of a STARS Chapter; if your academic institution or organization does not already have a STARS Chapter please have a faculty/staff member from your institution/organization apply for one here.

You can find more information about our partners the INVITE AI Institute here and EngageAI Institute here.

Programs for Students and Faculty

STARS BPC Research Scholars

Are you a student interested in learning how to conduct research? Are you a faculty member looking to build capacity at your institution for evaluating your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? Students can apply to join the STARS Broadening Participation in Computing Research Scholars program.

The STARS BPC Research program (BPCR) serves a national resource, with an online STARS BPC Research Toolkit of learning materials, tools, and resources, as well as in-person training workshops and online webinars, building capacity for new BPC researchers and the BPC community. The program provides undergraduate and graduate students with training and resources to scaffold engagement in broadening participation in computing research and evaluation (Dahlberg, 2011; Payton, 2015, Rorrer, 2019). With guidance from faculty mentors and evaluation experts, STARS BPCR Scholars are guided through conducting a BPC research project with a well-defined hypothesis and study design that uses validated assessment instruments and tools. BPR Training workshops are offered at the STARS Celebration and RESPECT conferences on topics including: human subjects research and ethics, critical theory that underlies interventions for BPC, and designing research studies and evaluation plans. Workshops also introduce the STARS BPR Toolkit, which includes guides for applying BPC research methodologies, a collection of BPC assessment instruments, and tools.

CISE PIs seeking to include BPC plans in their proposals are invited to collaborate with us to include the STARS BPCR program or toolkit to build their capacity for effective BPC work.

STARS Black Affinity Group Alliance

The STARS Black Affinity Group is dedicated to fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment for Black individuals in computer science. We are enthusiastic about expanding our Affinity Group network and engaging our members in meaningful ways. Join as a Leadership or Community Volunteer member. Give back to the Philly Youth with STEM - Computer Science focused outreach activities, mentorship and community.

Approved presentation submissions are eligible for celebration registration waiver, participation stipend or travel + hotel stipend and an amazing opportunity for networking STARS IGNITE programs. Join us today, as our Affinity membership application is open for enrollment, and let's collectively ignite positive change in the world of technology.

STARS Launch

Looking for support in finding and adopting evidence-based approaches to broadening participation in computing? Have a promising approach you’d like to share and evaluate?

STARS Launch supports the development, adoption, and propagation of evidence-based approaches for broadening participation in computing within the STARS network of colleges and universities. The program supports faculty, students, and staff in the adoption of BPC interventions through workshops, conference sessions, professional development opportunities, and the distribution of materials and programs-in-a-box.

Since 2006, STARS Launch programs have included Pair Programming (Williams, 2000); STARS Mentoring, which partners advanced and developing college computing students to lead K12 computing outreach projects (Boyer, 2010), Tiered Research Experiences for Undergraduates (TREU), which prepares faculty to lead and recruiting students to participate in socially relevant computing and BPC research; and BJC-STARS, which engages computing faculty and students in CS for All efforts to support high school teachers to offer the Beauty and Joy of Computing Computer Science Principles course (Milliken, 2019). In addition, STARS has also hosted faculty workshops on inclusive pedagogies and teaching practices, such as Lightweight Teams (Latulipe, 2015).

For those looking to propagate their promising practices, STARS Launch provides a national distribution point for educational reforms with particularly strong channels to those groups of students who have traditionally been the hardest for our field to reach.

Computing departments and faculty are invited to include the STARS Launch program.

Programs for Faculty

Inclusive Workforce Prep

Are you a faculty member looking to accurately prepare your students for the technical interview process? You can apply to participate in the STARS Technical Interview Workshop Series.

This workshop series aims to inform faculty about Software Application Developer technical interviews and the challenges students face during these sessions. This series will expose CS faculty directly to the technical interview process and prepare CS faculty to implement practices in their classrooms and/or departments at large to prepare students for Software Application Developer technical interviews.

Full-time and/or adjunct faculty in the fields of Computing who reside at 4-year institutions are eligible to apply. Faculty who reside at minority-serving institutions are strongly encouraged to apply!

HBCU Success

Are you a Computer Science faculty member looking at a HBCU looking for support? You can sign up to participate in this quarterly webinar series.

Workshops for HBCU Success aim to help support grant writing focused on supporting Computer Science Education outreach efforts. In addition to the workshops, the program will provide open ‘office hours” for faculty to ask questions about writing grant proposals to the NSF CISE Directorate, other NSF directorates, or corporate funders. Lastly, faculty selected for this program will participate in in-person sessions at the STARS Celebration. This program aims to build capacity at HBCU CS departments to support their departmental outreach activities.