CyberPEERS

Hillsborough Community College, Tampa FL

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 Hillsborough Community College (HCC). HCC is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution located in Tampa, Florida. Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 unique students pursuing associate degrees in cybersecurity, cybersecurity operations, network digital forensics, network security, and network enterprise cloud. First-year STEM students will receive up to two years of scholarship support. The project will use a peer ecosystem to increase student persistence. Activities include national cybermentoring programs, entrepreneurial growth mindset training, cyber league competitions, faculty mentoring, peer role models, and local technology conferences. This Track 1 Institutional Capacity Building project will expand the workforce with two-year degree technicians and will broaden the field with females and minorities The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Four objectives guide the project: 1) recruit low-income, talented students with targeted outreach to women and students from groups underrepresented in cybersecurity; 2) increase students' identity in cybersecurity fields with mentors, professional networks, entrepreneurial growth mindsets, and cybersecurity peer role models; 3) raise retention and graduation rates with faculty mentoring, early warning risk assessments, and tutoring; and 4) increase graduates' advancements in cybersecurity with internships, pathways to universities, and national cyber league competitions. The project includes a collaboration with Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), a national organization advancing women in cybersecurity fields. Literature on retention among STEM students attaining associate degrees is limited and this project will generate knowledge of how strategically selected supports can be used effectively in the community college setting. Project evaluation will help shape an understanding of impacts (e.g. In what ways and to what extent was the project successful in raising graduation rates through mentoring, industry conferences, entrepreneurial growth mindset, cyber league competitions, and peer role models?). The project evaluation will include assessments of impacts on women cybersecurity students or students from underrepresented groups. This project has the potential to strengthen STEM education, contribute to the STEM workforce, and provide new insights into practices to promote the success of undergraduates, particularly women and minorities in Associate in Science STEM degree programs. 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.