NSF Award
2225490
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 Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). SIUC is a rural university and the major research institution in Southern Illinois, one of America’s most economically distressed regions. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 40 unique full-time transfer students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Geography & Environmental Resources and Geology. Transfer students will receive two-year scholarships. The proposed project is an interdisciplinary STEM program, Earth-Sustainability Scholarship (ESS), for academically talented students who demonstrate financial need to pursue undergraduate environmental and earth science degrees. A sustainability-minded STEM workforce is vital for the nation to strategically develop natural resources, experience economic growth, and make informed decisions in a rapidly changing world. The project will develop an educational pipeline from student admission and training to graduation and professional development and advance the understanding of the dominant factors that increase the academic and professional success of low-income students. A mentoring system and a networked supporting community that integrate campus resources and sustainability activities will be established for improved curricular and co-curricular experiences. The project is expected to broaden the participation of low-income students in environmental and earth science by reducing financial pressure, increasing learning opportunities and outcomes, and bridging overall career success. It will also advance the mission of U.S. institutions of higher education that train a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce in sustainable environmental and earth science. <br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific objectives include: (1) increasing educational opportunities for academically talented students with financial need, (2) improving educational support programs at SIUC, (3) improving the retention of students in the SIUC School of Earth Systems and Sustainability, and (4) enhancing the future STEM workforce with skills in earth science and sustainability. To address the historic disconnect between sustainability and earth science training, it is vital to integrate sustainability into earth science education in institutes of higher education. Advancing understanding of how supporting services and programs drive academic success in geoscience majors, especially for transfer students, is also critical. This project will establish an educational prototype that successfully supports academically talented and low-income transfer students to become sustainability-focused earth science degree graduates. Following the Theory of Planned Behaviors, the supporting service and activities to enhance attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control will be framed as three critical constructs that are expected to drive students’ positive intentions for graduation. The project hopes to create an inclusive and diverse learning community and infrastructure to advance the project goals and missions. It is expected that 40 low-income academically talented transfer students will be awarded $10,000 scholarships each year and that an overall 85% retention rate and 80% graduation rate will be achieved. The project will utilize a management-oriented formative and summative evaluation approach. Results will be disseminated internally to the Office of the Provost and faculty members at SIUC and shared externally to the STEM community through STEM Central, social media, professional conferences, and publications in STEM education journals. 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.<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.
