Equipped for Success: Science Identity, Community, and Engagement to Promote STEM Student Persistence

Southwestern University, Georgetown TX

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 Southwestern University, a private liberal arts institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 25 unique fulltime students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computational mathematics, computer science, mathematics, or physics. The first-year science and math students will receive annual scholarships that are renewable for up to four years. This project aims to holistically promote the success of these students and their persistence to degree attainment using an evidence-based approach. The persistence framework will create a first-year experience for students that solidifies their science identity while promoting motivation and confidence. Students will experience active learning in their introductory science and math courses; become members of a vibrant learning community through participation in a pre-matriculation bridge program and cohort enrollment in key courses; and be immersed in early research opportunities. Curricular and co-curricular high impact educational practices – such as funded internships, undergraduate research experiences, and support for intercultural learning – will build upon the foundation created in the first year by encouraging students to gain knowledge and practical skills while also practicing integrative and applied learning. Connections between students and their faculty mentors, peers, and alumni will be cultivated through formal and informal mentoring opportunities, and student mental health and wellness will be promoted through regular health education programming. Because Southwestern University is an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution enrolling a strong population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to diversify the pool of graduates attaining science and math degrees, an important step toward promoting an inclusive workforce that will fuel scientific innovation and research excellence in the future. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific project aims include: recruiting a diverse multidisciplinary community of student Scholars with high financial need to pursue science and mathematics degrees at Southwestern University; promoting science identity, motivation, and confidence of Scholars during their first year using the persistence framework; and providing a comprehensive multi-year support structure for Scholars through high-impact educational practices, mentoring, and wellness programming. The efficacy of the persistence framework will be investigated, and this project will also examine how programmatic interventions affect student social connections and emotional wellness. Therefore, this project has the potential to advance understanding of how particular interventions affect the social connectedness and well-being of STEM students, and the relationship these factors have on outcomes such as persistence, science identity, motivation, and confidence. Project evaluation will be based on a Theory of Change framework and will use information gained from surveys and interviews with Scholars and a comparison (control) group of demographically similar students at Southwestern University in pursuit of science and mathematics degrees. Results of this project will be made available to the academic community through regional and national conferences (including general higher education and discipline-specific meetings) as well as timely publication in multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journals with broad readership. 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.