STEM Student Success with Coaching for Full-time and Part-time Community College Students

Community College District 502, Glen Ellyn IL

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 College of DuPage (COD). Located just west of Chicago, COD is the second largest postsecondary education institution in Illinois, serving over 23,000 students, with almost 40% of half-time to full-time students receiving Pell Grants. Over its six-year duration, this S-STEM Track 2 project will fund scholarships to a minimum of 120 part-time or full-time S-STEM eligible students pursuing an Associate’s degree (or intent to transfer for a future Bachelor degrees) in Chemistry, Computer-Information Science, Engineering, Math, or Physics. The COD S-STEM Student Success program offers effective evidence-based activities, research experiences, and scholarship support for S-STEM students. A dedicated S-STEM Success Coach will provide intrusive advising in individualized, cohort, and cross-disciplinary program guidance, academic planning, and enhanced educational opportunities for the students. This includes university visits, alumni panels, STEM lectures, professional development workshops, and holistic student support activities to encourage persistence in STEM majors. S-STEM students are also invited to participate in paid summer internships through existing partnerships with four-year institutions and local national laboratories. The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of academically talented undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The COD S-STEM project will achieve this goal by broadening the outreach to and support of full-time and part-time STEM students through continued evidence-based methods of intrusive advising by a dedicated Success Coach, combined with scholarships to reduce financial barriers. While S-STEM program data shows support strategies to be highly effective for full-time STEM students, the majority of community college populations tend to be students who attend on a part-time basis. This project will incorporate six pillars of evidence-based infrastructure: (1) Intrusive advising and student tracking through student success coaching; (2) Coordinated academic pathways in alignment with area four-year universities; (3) STEM faculty mentoring and cohort building; (4) STEM engagement activities and research experiences; (5) Reduction of financial barriers; and, (6) Early identification of gaps in college and career readiness. Whenever possible, strategies will be offered through a variety of modalities (in person, online) and varied as to time, location, or other factors to accommodate part-time students’ needs. 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.