Scholarships and Learning Community to Build Academic Momentum in STEM Students who Transfer from a Community College to a Four Year University

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project will support students at Front Range Community College and Colorado State University. Front Range Community College is the largest community college in Colorado. It has a diverse student body and is the largest source of transfer students to Colorado State University. Over the project's five-year duration, the project will provide up to four years of scholarship support for at least 150 STEM students. These students will pursue associate's and bachelor's degrees in mathematics, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, or computer sciences. A team of faculty and student success coaches will contribute to Scholars' success by: implementing Scholars' onboarding into a math and science learning community at both institutions; developing Scholars' knowledge and skills; ensuring transfer continuity through curriculum mapping and articulation; providing hands-on experiences; and mentoring the Scholars. This project is significant because it will integrate national best practices for improving student retention, transfer, and degree completion that are being adopted by community colleges nationwide. Broader impacts of this project include narrowing of educational gaps in Colorado and increasing the diversity of students completing STEM degrees. Its intellectual merit lies in a research study that will evaluate the use of near-term measures of student success (academic momentum) to predict and support long-term success. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project aims to increase the number of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College who complete a STEM associate degree, transfer to Colorado State University, and complete a STEM baccalaureate degree. The specific aims are: 1) optimizing enrollment and persistence of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College Math and Science Career and Academic Community; 2) increasing Scholar's STEM engagement, knowledge, and skills; and 3) improving continuity and articulation in the transfer process to increase student success. This project's research component will generate new knowledge about best practices for supporting baccalaureate degree completion of STEM students who begin their education at a two-year colleges. The research project will measure the effect of scholarships and the project's activities on student self-efficacy, science identity, and academic momentum. The project expects that academic momentum metrics will provide actionable data that may be better suited for measuring success of interventions than retention/completion metrics. An external evaluator will measure the extent of implementation of the project's activities, who participated, and if the project's objectives are met using formative and summative mixed-method measures. This project's outcomes and research findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, posted on websites such as the Department of Education's "What Works Clearinghouse," and presented at regional and national conferences. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. 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.