Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship Program for Suffolk County Community College

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This project continues, builds upon, and significantly expands a previously successful NSF-CSEM Scholarship Program. This program (operating from 2001-2006) has already demonstrated significantly higher graduation (71%) and transfer (46%) rates in comparison to the average graduation (24%) and transfer (14%) rates at Suffolk County Community College (SCCC). Additional features being added include: enhanced counseling regarding financial aid, graduation, and transfers; more summer internships, research opportunities, and job shadowing opportunities; frequent on-site tours at partnering institutions; and additional faculty presentations, invited speakers, and non- (SCCC) mentors for SSTEM/CSEMS scholarship meetings.The intellectual merits of this project include: (1) the implementation of a revised and improved version of the existing successful joint NSF-CSEMS and SCCC-CSEMS program by a team of project directors who possess diverse academic backgrounds in the sciences, engineering and technology; (2) two Co-PIs on the team who devote much of their time and efforts to recruiting women and underrepresented minorities into SCCC's science and engineering/technology programs (a current NSF-CSEMS Co-PI and engineering professor who designed, developed, and currently directs the college's first gender equity program for women pursuing nontraditional careers in engineering and technology, and a key administrator in the Office of Continuing Education, who directs numerous minority recruitment programs, including SCCC's Collegiate Science & Technology Education Program, Science & Technology Entry Program, and Liberty Partnerships Program); and (3) a unique combination of educational and research opportunities for the Scholars, offered in collaboration with Dowling Colleges, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University.The broader impacts of the project include a greater emphasis on enhancing diversity within SCCC's current core group of NSF Scholars by collaborating with CSTEP to transition 10-15 low income and/or underrepresented students into the NSF-STEMS Program each year.