Creating technical leaders from early collegians of exceptional promise: a comprehensive program for demolishing barriers to persistence.

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This significant project will fund thirteen additional participants to the successful Rice Emerging Scholars Program (RESP) for STEM majors at Rice University. The program is designed to meet the needs of talented students whose preparation leaves them at risk of attrition. The program is comprehensive in its attack on the barriers to persistence with activities that focus on academic preparation for college and navigational skills in college. It provides students with a challenging and immersive bridge experience focusing on the most difficult topics a student will face within their first semesters, followed by mentoring and at least two years of intensive advising. All thirteen participants will have high potential, substantial financial need, and the vast majority will be from under-represented groups. This funding will greatly increase the chance that these students will major in STEM disciplines and then later graduate into leadership in the sciences and engineering. Spillover effects to the broader URM and first-generation collegian population include the creation of a visible supportive community of engaged young STEM scholars. The investigators will study the effectiveness of this non-remedial comprehensive program and its elements in overcoming obstructions to persistence by comparing RESP students to a non-RESP control group. The study will examine academic outcomes such as course grades, STEM attrition, and study skills and attitudinal outcomes such as STEM self-efficacy and career interest. The research planned comprises qualitative interviews about the college experience, quantitative longitudinal assessment of academic achievement, and quantitative longitudinal assessment of STEM attitudes and study skills using survey methodology. Research results will be disseminated broadly to the academic community in STEM education and learning sciences. The results will be scalable and exportable to inform the development of interventions at other universities in which underprepared high potential students attempt the difficult transition from high school to college.