NSF Award
2424568
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 by bringing together three small rural primarily undergraduate universities in northern (Fairmont State University), central (Glenville State University) and southern (WVU Institute of Technology) West Virginia. Over its one-year duration, this Collaborative Planning Grant project will lay the foundation for a larger multi-institutional effort to increase the number of talented low-income STEM students in Appalachia who graduate with STEM degrees and secure jobs or pursue graduate education. This project leverages an existing collaboration with the First2 Network, which engages in improvement science to test and scale high impact practices to increase persistence in STEM. The project will contribute to the STEM education knowledge base by conducting a needs assessment tailored to primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), utilizing student input and experiences to build a framework that can inform other rural schools across the state and country interested in forming similar partnerships.<br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Four specific objectives guide the project team's efforts toward that goal. First, is to assess the barriers to success for talented, low-income students and design approaches to address those challenges. Second, is to investigate the most effective strategies to recruit S-STEM students and award scholarships. The third objective is to determine common curricular and co-curricular interventions and build a regional learning network of faculty, students, and student support staff on collaborating campuses. Fourth, and finally, is to build capacity to create a successful multi-institutional S-STEM Track 3 project. Over the course of this planning period, project leads will support teams of faculty, student support staff, and students. Their perspectives will guide changes in curricular and co-curricular supports, campus climate, and the financial aid process. The project team will use institutional data and interviews with STEM students to develop a needs assessment report. The data generated and approach to developing the needs assessment will be shared within the First2 Network and the National INCLUDES Network, assisting others in establishing similar collaborations. 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, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.<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.
