Supporting Student Success: Improving Retention in STEM Fields by Implementing a Workforce Development Research Methods Program

Millersville University, Millersville PA

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 the Millersville University, a regional public institution of approximately 6500 undergraduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide renewable scholarships to 30 distinct full-time, high-achieving, low-income students (3 cohorts with 10 students each) who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, earth science, mathematics, physics, or robotics. In addition to receiving financial support, scholars will be part of a multi-facet academic and co-curricular support program. In particular, the project will produce cohorts of well-trained students who will be prepared to the STEM workforce throughout the region. Collaborative support networks of local industry, content experts, University support services, and trained peer/career mentors, will be in place during, and sustained past, the project's lifetime. In connection with this, the project will build a Community Building Retention Program (CoBRA) and will include a partnership with Chincoteague Bay Field Station at Wallops Island, Virginia, through which an interdisciplinary Workforce Development Program for S-STEM Scholars will feature informative seminars, mini-research projects, and cohort-building activities to help prepare students for their STEM careers. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other public regional institutions striving to support low-income STEM students. To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to recruit a diverse set of 30 scholars in 3 cohorts and to implement and analyze a comprehensive program of academic and co-curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate these scholars in myriad STEM disciplines. Second is to implement strategies for building student knowledge and systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including workforce preparation. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base through project evaluation by employing qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze and gain insights regarding which aspects of the project's support activities, or combination of activities, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, workforce preparation, and overall success of students. And fourth is to yield a sustainable and replicable model, and disseminate outcomes and findings with respect to this model, to inform other higher-education professionals and regional institutions seeking to support low-income, highly talented STEM students. 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.