GEMS Program

Improving the Geological Experience for Minority Students

Now Posted at CSUN Geosciences

Mission: This program provides community building, academic and research support to encourage and improve the geological experience of disadvantaged and underrepresented minority (URM) students, such as Hispanic American, Latinx, Black, and Native American students at CSUN in the Department of Geological Sciences.

Peer Mentorship

Guidance in navigating and balancing academics with jobs and family

Develop skills in balancing time management

Assistance seeking and applying for academic scholarships and research support

Incentives for success and tutoring in Math and Chemistry

Incentives for better GPA performance

Demystifying the graduate school application process

Assistance with Resume building

Assistance with transition after B.S. degree to employment or graduate school

URM students makeup more than 52% of undergraduate geoscience majors.

90% of GEM M.S. students successfully advanced to jobs or Ph.D. programs

40% of GEM B.S. students successfully advanced to jobs or graduate programs

Diversity improves equal representation but has also been shown to improve diversity of ideas, perspective, and more innovative discoveries (e.g. Hofstra et al., 2020).

Join US!

Donate to Support the GEMS Program
Contact: Dr. Dayanthie Weeraratne, dsw@csun.edu
Dept of Geological Science, CSUN