At the PR HEARTS Conference, faculty will

• Discover and explore approaches for self-care and wellness to reduce burnout and improve retention.
• Learn from other US HSIs what capacity building strategies are and how they can be built from the “bottom up,” modified, and applied to meet the needs of the HSIs in Puerto Rico (via cultural responsiveness).
• Gain improved sense of belonging through convening and by learning of similar inclusive excellence strategies taking place inside Puerto Rico that will also foster collaborations within Puerto Rico and at HSIs in the US.
• Establish sustained dialogues with experts on how to establish a community within PR to share best practices to support (mostly rural, low-income, first generation) Hispanic students in STEM.
• Place special attention on the unique demands of teaching STEM courses in the context of the pandemic, virtual and hybrid instruction.
• Gain strategies and tools for competitive grant-writing (from experts in the US mainland) and guidance for streamlining bureaucratic measures for administrators in charge of grant writing policies (i.e., IRB officers and grants/research office leaders).
• Return to their classrooms re-energized with tools and experiences that will inform their teaching practices and interactions with STEM students to ultimately foster institutional change to improve outcomes for Hispanic students.

Programming at the Conference will enhance faculty capacity by providing increased sense of belonging, well-being, and self-efficacy for implementing best practices in undergraduate STEM teaching and generating competitive grant proposals to further support and sustain STEM student success.