Improving Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation in STEM for Low-Income Students in Central Pennsylvania

Commonwealth University Of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg 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 Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, a public, broad access, primarily undergraduate institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 38 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity, Engineering, Geosciences, Mathematics, and Physics. First-year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project will improve student persistence through a combination of academic, social, and professional supports including a first-year learning community, faculty mentoring, peer tutoring, early service-learning research opportunities, professional experience grants, major success maps, first-year seminars, and career counseling. The key impacts of this project are persistent improvements to STEM student recruitment and support systems at Commonwealth and a better understanding of the impact of targeted student success measures on scholar retention in STEM. Because Commonwealth University serves a primarily rural and low-income region, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM disciplines and benefit economic development in north central Pennsylvania and the U.S. Science and Technology workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Towards this goal the project team will pursue three specific objectives. First, is to increase matriculation of low-income students in STEM disciplines by 10% compared to 2022-23. Second, is to retain 92% of project scholars from first- to second-year, and third, is to graduate 83% of project scholars in 4 years. This project will fill critical gaps in the understanding of the impacts of specific student success measures by first studying the effect of tools such as first year seminars, major success maps, professional experience grants, and service-learning on low income student success in STEM disciplines, as measured by metrics such 2-year retention rates, DFWI%, and 4- and 6-year graduation rates. Next, the project will explore how these tools improve student outcomes by investigating their effects on psycho-social constructs associated with increased retention and graduation such as self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and disciplinary identity. Third, and lastly, the project will develop understanding of activities that can be used to build cohort cohesion across multiple campuses. This project will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach built on information from institutional research, interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Lessons learned and best practices will be shared with local, regional, and national audiences through presentations at STEM education and disciplinary conferences, publication in appropriate education and disciplinary journals, and a dedicated project webpage. 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.