SLCC-STEM Scholars Program

Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) has received an NSF Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) award for their project entitled the SLCC (pronounced Slick)-STEM Scholars Program that will provide scholarships to academically talented, economically disadvantaged students that often experience low retention and graduation rates. The program has a special focus on women and minorities since these groups are at higher risk for not completing STEM degrees. In this way the project will ensure a robust, diverse workforce. Over the course of 4 years, SLCC-STEM will provide approximately 48 incoming students with a $10,000 scholarship for full time study over 2 years leading to a STEM degree. In addition, the project will provide scholarships for approximately 32 "near completers" to finish STEM degrees. "Near completers" are students who are within 30 credit hours of completion of a degree, but have been absent from college for at least 2 semesters. SLCC will draw on its extensive network of relationships with area high schools and community partners to recruit students into STEM programs. In addition to financial support, SLCC-STEM will provide other support mechanisms including faculty mentoring, focused advising, opportunities for undergraduate scholarship, transfer assistance to baccalaureate programs, and a supportive social network. SLCC-STEM will work very closely with existing science research programs and the TRiO/Student Support Services Program to provide these services. Project evaluation will be both formative and summative assessment with qualitative and quantitative data collected from multiple sources to assess recruitment, retention, and graduation rates, as well as the effectiveness of the SLCC-STEM student support systems. The data generated will provide information on the most effective means to support underrepresented STEM students and to re-engage students who have nearly completed their degrees but have left school for a variety of family or financial reasons.