NSF Award
2221637
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 North Dakota State University (NDSU), a Rural-Serving Institution. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology. First-year students will receive up to 4-year scholarships, and transfer students will receive up to 3-year scholarships. Students receiving scholarships will have the opportunity to participate in the Herd Scholars academic and career support project. This project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including establishment of learning communities, mentoring, undergraduate research and internship experiences, and preparation for graduate school and employment. Because NDSU has a high population of rural students, this project has the potential to broaden their participation in STEM fields and contribute to our understanding of how social and academic integration in STEM is achieved. <br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, and broaden the diversity of students entering graduate research programs and/or the STEM workforce. To achieve this goal, the project will first use a network of high school guidance counselors, NDSU alumni teachers and Native American partner organizations to enhance recruitment of high-achieving low-income students from rural areas. It will establish a learning community of Herd Scholars through a 2-year cohort curriculum that engages students in career exploration and development of STEM skills, while ensuring interaction with peers and faculty mentors on a weekly basis. To ensure that the curricular and co-curricular activities are meeting Herd Scholars’ academic needs and promoting their science identity, the project will use a Students as Partners framework in which the student’s perspective is deliberately incorporated into the design of curricular and co-curricular activities in order to promote students’ sense of belonging and self-efficacy. Students will receive supported opportunities to participate in undergraduate research. The project aims to build a network of regional industry and governmental agency partners, including representation from those providing employment opportunities in rural areas, who will share their knowledge of STEM career opportunities and provide internship opportunities. This project aims to advance understanding of curricular and co-curricular structures that promote academic and social integration of underrepresented groups, such as rural, low-income students. Evaluation will be conducted using mixed-methods to gather both quantitative and qualitative information about each component of the project. The results will be used to continuously make improvements throughout the project duration and identify those components most valuable for replication of in other settings with high rural student enrollment. The outcomes of this project will be disseminated through internal seminars, journal publications, and conference presentations. 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.
