A Support Ecosystem to Expand Capabilities and Opportunities for STEM Undergraduates Following Hurricane Maria

University Of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Mayaguez PR

Investigators

Abstract

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. This S-STEM project at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez will support 26 scholars in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences for three academic years (2018-2021), totaling 78 annual scholarships of $5,000 over the project duration. The proposal seeks to address some of the challenges facing undergraduate STEM students in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The project will enhance and provide students with (1) financial support, (2) academic support, and (3) socio-emotional support to increase retention and graduation. In addition, the project team will generate important knowledge about student resilience and persistence after a natural disaster, the importance of an ecosystem of support that includes academic and socio-emotional support systems, and the validity of the adage that financial aid alone cannot increase student success. The goals of the project are: (1) to provide academically talented low-income undergraduate STEM students with financial, academic, and socio-emotional support; (2) to adapt and implement an ecosystem of proven financial, academic, and socio-emotional support strategies and to study their effects on retention, graduation, and success; and (3) to contribute to the implementation and sustainability of effective evidence-based curricular activities for low-income STEM students. A quantitative factor analytic study will examine the contributions of the three types of support (financial, academic, socio-emotional) separately and their synergistic effects on student success, retention, and graduation. A critical outcome of the effort will be insight into the effects of natural disaster on undergraduate students' pursuit of STEM degrees and the importance of a systemic approach to facilitating student success. 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.