NSF Award
1833931
With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). This project will respond to the urgent national need for a talented and diverse STEM workforce by increasing the persistence and graduation rates of students who enter college with an interest in STEM. Over the next five years, this project will directly support 60 to 100 academically-talented FCRH students. (The number of Scholars that can be supported depends on the level of the Scholars' financial need.) By completing a robust research plan, this project should increase understanding about which interventions best support student success, for whom they work, and under what circumstances are they most effective. The investigators will share their findings broadly to encourage others to learn from the results obtained through this research project. <br/><br/>This project will enroll five cohorts of 12-20 academically-talented incoming FCRH first-year STEM majors. Students who are selected will have significant financial need and include individuals from traditionally under-represented backgrounds in STEM, including women, under-represented minorities, students with disabilities, students who are the first in their families to go to college, and students from educationally-disadvantaged backgrounds. During their first year, these students will be awarded scholarships of up to $10,000 to reduce their otherwise unmet financial need. In addition, they will participate in a coordinated offering of three high-impact practices designed to support their success in STEM: 1) A pre-enrollment summer academic and career-focused orientation program; 2) A year-long Introduction to Research course that will engage students in original research; and 3) A full-time summer research internship. After the first year, continuing scholarship recipients will engage in a fourth high-impact practice by serving as peer mentors for the remainder of their undergraduate studies and attending the program's community-building events. Few, if any, existing studies have investigated the impact of a multi-phasic, coordinated program on promoting STEM success. The project team will fill this gap by conducting a well-matched, quantitative/qualitative longitudinal analysis of attitudes that predispose students for STEM success, including self-efficacy, self-concept, science learner identity, and STEM career aspirations. This study will also examine academic metrics of success, including course grades, overall grade point average, and progress toward degree. In addition, the study will measure social belonging to assess the impact of this S-STEM program on students' STEM identity. By supporting diverse cohorts of students to graduation, this project will help to strengthen our nation's STEM workforce and, thus, enhance its competitiveness and preeminence in STEM fields. The knowledge gained from this project will inform the Fordham community and will be disseminated widely within the STEM education research community. The results are expected to be generalizable to other institutions that seek to surmount barriers to undergraduate student success in STEM.<br/><br/>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.
