The Educational Impact of the ALFALFA Survey
From the outset of ALFALFA, the PIs (Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes at Cornell University) looked to leverage the science of the project into an educational tool to inspire and train the next generation of astronomers (and STEM professionals in general). In conjunction with the ALFALFA Survey, the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team was established to facilitate undergraduate student participation. The UAT was conceived in 2004 by a small group of faculty members from several New York and Pennsylvania undergraduate liberal arts institutions, plus the University of Puerto Rico. One-day workshops were hosted at Union College in Schenectady, New York in 2005 and 2006, which introduced attendees to ALFALFA and the possibility of working on related research while maintaining positions at primarily small, somewhat isolated undergraduate institutions. The success of these workshops inspired an NSF proposal to form an expanded UAT program with a workshop at Arecibo. Starting with 14 institutions near the beginning of the ALFALFA survey (AST-0724918/0725267/0725380), the UAT increased in size to 19 members in 2012 under AST-1211005, to 24 members in 2020 under AST-1637339, and, as of 2025, 22 members under AST-2045369. Over seventeen project years of partnering with Arecibo and Green Bank Observatories, the UAT has promoted peer mentoring and training, enhanced faculty and student research in small physics and astronomy programs, encouraged student pathways to STEM careers, and included women and minorities in leadership roles.