STEM Community Building to Support Academic Success and Retention of Low-Income Students

Ithaca College, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This S-STEM Track 1 project at Ithaca College will provide scholarship support to fourteen students with financial need -- two cohorts of seven -- who are majoring in computer science, mathematics, or physics/astronomy. Liberal arts colleges such as Ithaca play a significant role in educating low-income, rural, first-generation, and minority students. Ithaca College's project is designed to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for them and to improve their academic and social experience and feelings of belonging. Project faculty will recruit Scholars from the surrounding area; reduce their financial need through scholarships; and create a culture of improved faculty and peer relationships and community in the scholar cohorts. Activities include a living/learning community, peer tutoring and mentoring, faculty mentoring, research and internships, and workshops designed to improve soft skills and interpersonal relationships. These supports will contribute to the project's goals of reducing attrition; increasing attainment of STEM career goals; and increasing Scholar preparedness to contribute to the STEM workforce in high-demand fields locally, regionally, and nationally. A research study that examines the benefits of improved student-faculty and student-peer relationships and cohort supports will benefit other liberal arts institutions that serve similar populations of rural students. The goals of Ithaca College's S-STEM project are to recruit low-income, academically talented computer science, mathematics, or physics/astronomy students to the college; implement academic and social supports to improve student-faculty and student-peer interactions and foster a sense of belonging to the college and major; improve professional development and soft skills (communication, problem-solving, teamwork, personal learning, motivation, and initiative); and retain and graduate students who enter the STEM workforce or STEM graduate programs. Evidence-based program elements include a STEM living/learning community, academic support through peer tutoring and a first-year STEM seminar, individualized support through faculty mentoring and a peer success coach; soft skills and career development workshops; research and internship opportunities; and cohort activities. The project will evaluate best practices leading to improved student-faculty and student-peer relationships, greater use of academic support resources, and professional development. Specific research questions are (1) To what extent do increased student-faculty interactions increase low-income students? connectedness to the college, their STEM major, and their instructors? (2) To what extent do student-peer interactions increase student connectedness to the college, their STEM major, and their peers? (3) To what extent do low-income scholars feel valued by faculty and other students in the classroom and believe that faculty accurately perceive their abilities? The impacts of this study are aligned with the college's institutional-level commitment to investigate and implement evidence-based approaches to foster student success and retention. The project evaluation will generate evidence that can be used to support sustained programming as well as transferability to similar institutions. 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.