“You’re on to something.”

This compliment, from one of the most influential people in his field, led Brian Burt, assistant professor in the School of Education, to pursue research that would earn him the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program award.

It’s the highest recognition for junior faculty members involved in scientific research, providing him with $569,702 of funds over the next five years. 

Burt’s research involves diversifying STEM fields, specifically focusing on black male graduate students.

The idea started during a project as a doctoral student, Burt said. But it wasn’t until an international conference in Norway when Pat Terenzini, professor emeritus of higher education at Penn State, gave him the compliment.

He remembers his dissertation supervisor at the University of Michigan, Lisa Lattuca, telling him the significance of the compliment.

Terenzini doesn’t give out compliments often.

“He is one of the colleagues and mentors that I, and so many of my colleagues in higher ed, would consider a seminal figure in the development of the field,” Lattuca said in a written statement.

Terenzini is also the author of two of the most widely cited books in the field of higher education.

From there, Burt took off. He arrived in Ames in the fall of 2014 and began a study after receiving a partial award here on campus. The study was focused on increasing the success rate of engineering and STEM fields, specifically with black male graduate students.

Burt formed a research group on campus that included master and doctoral students, along with full-time professionals on campus. He plans to break them up into sub groups and have them focus on different aspects of the project, rather than working on it piece by piece as a whole.

But working seven days a week and juggling many projects at one time can become unhealthy, Burt said.

He had to consciously remind himself that taking breaks strengthens his work, allowing him to come back re-energized, motivated and with a set of fresh eyes.

“[Burt] is learning how to not get himself over extended,” Marlene Strathe, director of the School of Education, said.

“Without keeping some degree of balance to your life, it’s easy to burn out,” Strathe said. “I check in on him and ask about his garden, his new puppy and other things he’s doing for himself.”

Jarrel Johnson, a Cyclone success coach and member of the research group, praised Burt for his ability to create an environment of collaboration, and for trying to lead by example for living a balanced life.

“He utilizes a peer mentorship leadership model,” Johnson said. “That allows us to learn from each other, and also get the work done in a more effective manner.”

Burt’s work continued to gain traction and acceptance, and is finishing a National Academy of Education fellowship project. He described this as a “precursor” to his next project with the National Science Foundation.

Throughout this fellowship project, he’s thought about what it means to have an engineering identity. What does it look like? Why do some stick with engineering while others don’t?

These two awards helped assure Burt that he’s on the right path and that his work is meaningful to someone else.

His success with these two projects showed the reviewers at the National Science Foundation that he would be able to complete a large grant for this current project.

“Being the recipient of a five-year Faculty Early Career Development Program award is very surreal,” Burt said. “I still can’t put it into perspective yet. This award is meant to support career development of the academic leaders of the 21^st century.”

Burt said that, in his proposal, he wanted to make it very clear that this project is about the experiences of black men. The project itself uses workshop and webinar series to help educate others in how to broaden participation. 

Very intentionally, he wants to introduce the next generation of scientists and scholars to broaden participation and expand diversity within these fields.

He explained that current research puts the onus on the student. They’re not smart enough. They had bad ACT or SAT scores.

But Burt wants to flip the script and investigate the institution and what about the physical environment promotes or prevents success. 

These are examples of what he calls the legacy of science. He believes things such as weed-out classes, making people feel that only 1 of 500 students can succeed, are counterproductive.

“According to our data, students segregate themselves when they’re in charge of forming their own study groups,” Burt said. “And when you have a school with only a handful of students from underrepresented populations, these students are held to a double standard.”

He chooses to focus on students at a graduate level because a lot of work that’s done related to STEM is related to K-12 and how to get more students excited at a younger age.

“It’s assumed when people are in graduate school they’re going to be the next leaders in the field,” Burt said. “Their physical presence, both realistically and symbolically, at the graduate level, helps change people’s ideas of who can be successful.”