The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington was an undergraduate diversity bridge program designed to support students from historically underrepresented groups in preparing for careers in conservation, natural resources, and environmental management.
Program team members Meera Lee Sethi and Martha Groom developed this case study to assess whether and how partnering with DDCSP@UW can facilitate organizational change toward greater equity within the conservation nonprofits and government agencies that host its interns, using data from semi structured interviews with current and former mentors.
While true progress toward a more equitable and diverse conservation field is slow and tentative, the authors found that individual mentors can experience profound and lasting changes in personal attitudes and professional behavior that may ripple outward.