The Role of High Impact Practices for STEM Persistence and Career Success

Kenyon College, Gambier OH

Investigators

Abstract

Kenyon College will award scholarships to low income, academically talented students, supporting them with high-impact practices (HIPs) to increase their persistence and graduation. Scholars will be engaged over four years, exposing them to HIPs early in their undergraduate careers, since the majority of students nationwide who leave STEM fields do so during their first two years. Activities begin with a summer learning community, and continue with structured and unstructured service learning projects, faculty-student mentoring, and internships and research opportunities. Four annual cohorts of 12 low-income, high-achieving students with interests across the STEM disciplines will receive scholarships. The project will test and evaluate the impact of STEM-focused HIPs beneficial to first-year students, aiming to increase persistence of these STEM students, especially those from groups with traditionally lower STEM degree completion rates. The research component of the project will also identify HIPs most likely to result in students pursuing STEM careers. An external expert will provide formative and summative evaluation of program impact, as well as future sustainability. Kenyon will contribute findings of best practices to the field, and will make special effort to share research emerging from its testing of HIPs and other programs in the liberal arts, for which there is little STEM-specific data.