Broadening Participation in STEM Careers through High-Impact Practices

University Of Detroit Mercy, Detroit MI

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 at University of Detroit Mercy, an private, urban university. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 20 unique full-time students pursuing four-year degrees in engineering, mathematics, or computer science. Scholars will enter in two cohorts and receive up to four years of annual scholarship support. The project intends to increase Scholars’ retention, graduation, and employment rates by working with existing on-campus resources and external industrial partners to implement sustainable high-impact practices. Scholars will engage in activities fostering personal, career, and academic development including participation in cohort-building activities, group counseling, multiple industry internships, and peer, faculty, and industry mentoring. The project has the potential to broaden participation in the STEM workforce and address a regional need for a skilled workforce. Results from this project could inform other higher education institutions about how to implement research-proven student retention practices to support diverse students in resource-limited environments. The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The project aims to: (1) support students personally and professionally in the pursuit of STEM degrees; (2) improve students’ professional identity and sense of belonging in the STEM community; and (3) increase student interest in STEM careers. Research on successful STEM undergraduate programs has identified high-impact practices, including cohort building, residential communities, mentorship, and research experiences. However, knowledge is limited regarding how to replicate such high-impact practices in small institutions with limited resources that serve heterogeneous student populations. This project will assess the hypothesis that such institutions can emulate these research-proven practices in an effective and sustainable manner. Specifically, the project seeks to explore the relationship between industry internships, group counseling experiences, and non-residential cohort-building impact on students’ STEM identity and success. This project has the potential to provide new insights on the critical support systems most influential in enhancing student persistence and placement in STEM careers for a diverse undergraduate population. Project evaluation will use a mixed-methods approach to analyze process data, student self-assessments, interviews and focus groups, retention/graduation data, and post-graduate career placement rates. The program model and research findings will be disseminated through presentations at STEM education conferences and through publications in conference proceedings and STEM education journals. 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.