Natural Science Transfer Scholars

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

To sustain the nation's global position in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), institutions of higher education are investing in efforts to increase the success, retention, and graduation of all students who pursue baccalaureate degrees in STEM. The goal of this project is to increase the quality and number of academically talented low-income community college students who are preparing for STEM graduate study or the STEM workforce by successfully transferring to a four-year institution and completing baccalaureate degrees in STEM. Community-college students planning to transfer to a STEM baccalaureate degree program at Michigan State University (MSU) will be given financial assistance and will receive enhanced academic support and professional development while completing their STEM bachelor's degrees. The project partners Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) with Mott Community College (Flint, MI) and Washtenaw Community College (Ann Arbor, MI). As students progress through their academic programs, an embedded research component will study the factors influencing their persistence in the natural sciences, their academic performance in science and math courses, their graduation rates, and their aspirations to pursue careers in the natural sciences. During their time in the program, Natural Science Transfer Scholars will be supported through activities such as peer and faculty mentoring and research experiences that promote successful academic and social integration into the campus STEM culture and enterprise. The research component will investigate the connections between programmatic activities at two-year college settings to their impact on students' sense of self-efficacy, mindset, and identity. To understand the pathway from community college to four-year programs in STEM, the project will develop a set of longitudinal case studies of students who transfer from two-year colleges to a four-year college in the natural sciences. The case studies will be used to inform the future design of programs supporting students who transfer into natural science academic programs. Ultimately, this project will increase the number of STEM graduates and advance our nation's understanding of how to best support the development of self-efficacy, mindset, and identity as scientists among low-income students who transfer from two-year colleges into four-year STEM degree programs.