The pursuit of underrepresented and underserved graduate students who attend Predominantly White Institutions to pursue disciplines and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Despite the increase in the number of underrepresented minorities in graduate school, underrepresented and underserved graduate students in STEM disciplines are encountering experiences that directly affect their graduate matriculation. This study took a case study approach to investigate the Virginia Tech George Washington Carver Assistantship Program's impact on supporting underrepresented and underserved graduate students in STEM disciplines and to assess further the extent to which their participation in this support program influences their academic and career success. Given the substantial financial resources allocated to the program and the annual student enrollment, a comprehensive case study needed to be conducted to gain deeper insight into the Carver program and the stakeholders that engaged with the program to enhance future programming and sustainability. It was essential to assess the Carver program's effectiveness in promoting student success and addressing the factors that impact underrepresented and underserved graduate students in STEM fields. Triangulation is used in this study to inform and strengthen the research findings from past program scholars, current scholars, and faculty. The Carver program is not generalizable to other programs, students, and faculty because the experiences are specific to the participants in this study. The findings illustrate that the evolution program's evolution cultivates a culturally engaging culture and climate to foster graduate student success. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study explores how a Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences institutional program, the George Washington Carver Assistantship Program, supports underrepresented and underserved graduate students in STEM disciplines. Despite an increase in the number of underrepresented minorities entering graduate school, these student populations faced challenges that impacted their graduate matriculation. This study utilized a case study approach to examine the impact of the Carver program on students' academic and career success. By taking a deeper look into the experiences of past program scholars, current program scholars, and faculty members, this study aims to gain deeper insight into the program's effectiveness on student success beyond supporting students through funding. While the study findings shed light on how the Carver program creates a supportive environment for graduate students, it is important to emphasize that the Carver program does not apply to all programs, students, and faculty. The experiences are specific to the participants in this study. This study highlighted that the Carver program has successfully supported students toward reaching student success by establishing a culturally engaging campus environment. Recommendations for future work in this study are to utilize a systems thinking approach to examine the program more broadly and investigate the systems in place that allow the program to function and be sustainable.

While disciplinarity still dominates college and university life, enthusiasm for interdisciplinary approaches has increased over the past three decades. Proponents often present interdisciplinarity as an a priori good, but scholars have noted that we have not yet sufficiently evaluated the efficacy of interdisciplinary initiatives. Most assessments of interdisciplinary initiatives have focused on tangible outcomes such as grants, papers, and patents. This is an unfortunate critical gap in the examination of interdisciplinarity, as it is possible that engagement in interdisciplinary activities changes student and faculty thinking in significant ways. This dissertation proposes to address the gap in the examination of interdisciplinarity regarding interdisciplinary learning outcomes by investigating the intellectual impact of interdisciplinary initiatives on students and faculty. Utilizing a manuscript approach for the dissertation experience, this series of qualitative studies is organized around three areas of inquiry related to learning in interdisciplinary contexts: (a) how systematic interdisciplinary training affect doctoral students' epistemic beliefs, that is, how they view the construction of knowledge and the nature of scholarship; (b) what faculty learn from engaging in interdisciplinary research initiatives, and what tools mediate this interdisciplinary learning process; and (c) whether an interdisciplinary training effort promotes the creation of an alternative community of practice for participating students and faculty. The studies were part of a larger mixed methods assessment of the efficacy of the EIGER program. Participants were selected based upon their affiliation with one specific interdisciplinary graduate training initiative, the EIGER program, at Virginia Tech, and came from the hard sciences, engineering, and social sciences. Informed by grounded theory, analysis of the data revealed that both graduate students and faculty achieve interdisciplinary understanding as a result of their interdisciplinary training and research experiences. Furthermore, faculty interdisciplinary learning is mediated by other people and two categories of tools, problem platforms and solution mechanisms, and is achieved by both borrowing and lending of disciplinary expertise. Finally, results suggest that programs like the EIGER may constitute emerging communities of practice that serve as alternatives to traditional disciplinary communities. / Ph. D.

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