Collaborative Research: ASPIRE: Appalachian Students Promoting the Integration of Research in Education

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

The "Appalachian Students Promoting the Integration of Research in Education" (ASPIRE) project will promote economic growth in the Appalachia region by supporting high achieving, low-income Appalachian students who attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville or Chattanooga to complete degrees in science. Appalachian students come from households where post-secondary education is rare and poverty rates are high, thus creating barriers to degree completion. ASPIRE will address financial, academic, and other barriers to graduating with a scientific degree by providing scholarships and targeted academic and social support. Eighty students will receive four-year scholarships, live in research-focused living/learning communities, engage in mentored research, and participate in academic transition seminars, career-building fellowships and family activities. Scholarship students on the larger Knoxville campus will also engage with the new Appalachian Mentoring Program, which will provide support across social, academic, and career-related domains. ASPIRE will compare students from low-income, low-minority, rural schools, which have the lowest college enrollment rate (44%) and the lowest six-year completion rates (21%) of any group, with students from low-income, high-minority, urban schools. The focus will be on evaluating the overlapping and unique needs of these two groups of students, as well as the relative effects on financial, socio-cultural and academic transition barriers on persistence and success of each type of support. Much is already known about the needs of first-generation, low-income, or underrepresented minority students; yet much less is known about the extent to which students with different combinations of these identities face different challenges and benefit from different support services. ASPIRE will provide a novel opportunity to identify and understand such unique needs. Results from this research will advance knowledge about evidence-based, high-impact practices that facilitate success for diverse students.