The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM.

The North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (NCLSAMP) project proposes to utilize "promising practices" as well as new program initiatives to achieve the following goals: 1) Increase the pool of competent underrepresented graduates with STEM bachelor's degrees; 2) Promote retention and baccalaureate degree attainment in STEM academic programs, and; 3) Increase the number of students who matriculate into STEM graduate programs. The NCLSAMP STEM Pathways and Research Alliance project's expected outcomes at the end of the project are to (1) maintain an overall retention rate of seventy-five percent (75%) of program participants in STEM baccalaureate programs within the Alliance; (2) increase by 10% the pool of competent historically underrepresented minority graduates with STEM bachelor's degrees; and, (3) increase by 10% the number of NCLSAMP participants who matriculate into STEM graduate programs.