Preparing STEM Scholars for Transfer and the Workforce

Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Winsted CT

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 Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC). Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to thirty-five (35) unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing associate's degrees in STEM disciplines. In particular, the program will recruit five cohorts of four full-time students and three cohorts of five half-time students over the six-year duration of the project to address unmet financial need with scholarships as well as to provide a system of student-support services. Support will include scholar cohorts, a designated STEM counselor, proactive advising, enhanced tutoring, mentored research and internship real-world STEM experiences, and career development activities. In addition, transfer exploration and visitation opportunities will be used to ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills they will need to complete an associate's degree in a timely fashion and successfully transfer into a bachelor’s degree program or employment in a STEM field. An innovative recruiting feature is the plan for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) workshops for area high school students. The progress and outcomes of this project will be disseminated to external audiences including the High-Impact Technology Exchange, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) STEM Conference, and the National Association of Biology Teachers annual conferences. To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue three goals. First is to provide STEM students with scholarships to reduce their unmet financial need, thereby allowing them to work less and spend more time on their studies. Second is to support these students with enrichment experiences and other evidence-based practices shown to promote learning and increased persistence to degree attainment. Third is to enhance student knowledge of transfer and career options to generate an increase in transfer rate to STEM programs and an increase in the STEM career placement rate. Insights and outcomes from rigorous mixed-methods evaluation and an educational research program will generate new knowledge on adaptations of high-impact practices by studying the effects of career and transfer explorations as well as interactions between students and their cohorts, advisors, faculty research and internship mentors, and the impact of these interactions. These lines of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support traditional and non-traditional students with holistic support services, especially at community colleges. 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.