Scholarships Advancing Mercer STEM Students (SAMS)

Mercer County Community College, Princeton Junction NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Scholarships for Advancing Mercer STEM Students (SAMS) will provide 120 scholarships for full-time STEM students who have demonstrated financial need at Mercer County Community College (MCCC). The specific goal of this program will be to provide scholarships for academically talented students who have demonstrated financial need so that they can successfully graduate and/or transfer to a 4-year institution in a STEM field. The central New Jersey community will benefit from the increased quality and numbers of graduates for the STEM workforce. The objectives of the SAMS program will be to: 1) retain at least 75% of the scholars for the duration of the grant; 2) have 50% of the scholars be underrepresented minorities (URMs) or women in STEM disciplines; 3) have the scholars be enrolled full-time, participate in intervention and advising programs as a cohort, and be encouraged to participate in undergraduate research or be trained as a peer-tutor in their second year of the program; and 4) have 75% of the scholars successfully graduate or transfer from MCCC in the field of STEM. Highlights of additional recruitment and retention activities are: a high school summer bridge program, weekly cohort meetings focusing on college success and transfer strategies, one-on-one mentoring, weekly review sessions in STEM gateway courses, STEM seminars with focused discussion afterwards, undergraduate research with a presentation and peer-tutoring with certification. The program will be designed as a two-year selective program for a cohort of students featuring nationally recognized strategies to promote STEM success. In terms of the broader impacts, providing scholarship opportunities to students who have demonstrated financial need will increase the retention rate as well as transfer and graduation rates in STEM programs. Low-income minority students and veterans will be a focus for the STEM scholarship program. The proposed project will help students prepare for employment and/or transfer to four-year programs in the STEM fields.