Improving the Success of STEM Undergraduate Students in a Rural Community: Learning with Emphasis on Academics, Developmental Experiences, and Research in STEM

Quincy University, Quincy IL

Investigators

Abstract

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students pursuing STEM degrees. Over the five years of this project, Quincy University (QU) will award scholarships of up to $6,000 per year to 20 eligible students, renewable through their senior year. QU is in southwestern Illinois, in the largest town in a 100-mile radius. Forty percent of its students are from surrounding rural communities. Thus, the grantee institution provides an important setting to study the pathways of rural low-income students pursuing STEM education. These students often do not pursue STEM majors because they lack exposure to and experience with diverse STEM career options. This program aims to improve degree attainment, and to equip students with transferable skills that employers seek. Such skills include critical thinking, oral and written communication, and leadership. By increasing access to high-quality STEM education and providing individualized, methodical, and intensive professional guidance, this project expects to increase opportunities for members of a large sector of society that has a prominent presence in the region. Moreover, the project will generate knowledge on how to recruit, retain, and successfully graduate rural, low-income, high-achieving students in STEM fields. This project has three goals. First, it aims to increase opportunities and access to higher education for academically high-achieving, financially disadvantaged students pursuing non-clinical biology and chemistry degrees. Second, it aims to enhance the broad understanding of evidence-based academic and student support activities needed to increase the interest of these students in pursuing STEM degrees. Third, QU plans to increase the first-year retention rate and four-year graduation rate for the scholarship recipients. QU's recruitment plan builds on relationships already in place at surrounding rural high schools, and includes faculty outreach and an on-campus STEM Career Fair. Students receiving scholarships will be partnered with a success coach and faculty mentor, and placed into a learning community. Scholarship recipients will: be housed together in the residence hall; co-enroll in major and general education courses throughout their academic tenure; and participate in programming to support academic success and social integration, such as field trips to local industries or university research facilities, and service activities. A new, required sophomore-level "Introduction to Research" course will give the students the opportunity to participate in laboratory or field research with a faculty mentor. The project will make use of quantitative and qualitative data, including student records, surveys, and student products such as guided reflections and coursework to determine the effect of project activities on retention, graduation, and learning outcomes for supported students. Evaluation tools will include Articulated Learning Guided Reflections, the Inquiry and Analysis VALUE rubric from the American Association of Colleges & Universities, the Themed Learning Community Questionnaire, Social Cognitive Career Theory, and the National Survey of Student Engagement. A control cohort will be established by matching demographic and academic characteristics of students who were not scholarship recipients. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.