The MACH-III Center serves as a galvanizing space for the brightest minds to come together on the Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University (PVAMU) campus to advance the status of minority populations across P-20 education and workplace contexts. We expand and redefine the term “minority” in an effort to set the stage for engaged scholarship that speaks to the assets and potential inherent among populations of color and other marginalized groups.

While a number of researchers and educational entities advance an agenda focused on minority and underserved populations; the majority of these efforts are taking place in spaces that are detached from the authentic day-to-day experiences of the actual population they purport to study. Unique to the MACH-III Center is its positionality within a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) setting. We are resolute in advancing the importance of marginalized populations using their own “voices” to speak to their extant conditions emanating from their own cultural enclaves.

MISSION

The mission of the Minority Achievement, Creativity, and High-Ability Center (MACH-III) is to produce cutting-edge best-practices and scholarship that will speak to the contemporary issues impacting critical populations: administration, faculty, and students across the P-20 spectrum and beyond into workplace contexts.

VISION

To develop best practices and promote asset-based approaches to research on critical populations that will establish Prairie View A&M University and the MACH-III Center as a preeminent clearinghouse and national model within academe in general and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in particular.

RESEARCH FOCUS

The programs and contributions of the MACH-III Center are operationalized primarily through six strategic foci that are referred to as vectors.

Vector 1: Minority Academic Giftedness/High Achievement – Highlights the on-going empirical scholarship that addresses the needs of academically gifted and high-achieving underserved populations

Vector 2: Black Male Achievement/Success – Contributes to the discourse that highlights best-practices and strategies that support the resilience and success of Black males

Vector 3: Minority Success in STEM Disciplines/Fields – Develops key solutions to the looming national problem of producing and retaining a STEM workforce

Vector 4: College and University Faculty Development – Focuses on making theory-to-practice connections for higher education faculty to enhance student learning

Vector 5: Higher Education and Student Affairs – Centers on the critical issues impacting the fields of higher education and student affairs

Vector 6: Business and Corporate Partnerships – Establishes relationships with business and corporate entities that support minority-serving initiatives, institutions, and interests