Realizing UB's Readiness, Innovation and Commitment to STEM Student Support

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The University at Buffalo (UB), State University of New York proposes a project entitled: Realizing UB's Readiness, Innovation and Commitment to STEM Student Support. The plan is to develop a comprehensive scholarship and support program for talented underrepresented students who wish to pursue a course of study in science, technology engineering or mathematics (STEM) at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Additional wrap around services include tutoring, supplemental instruction in STEM gatekeeper courses, faculty mentoring research opportunities service learning and paid internships. Twenty four-year $5,000 undergraduate scholarships and six two-year $10,000 graduate scholarship are to be offered. The intellectual merit of the program is the interdisciplinary alignment of UB's academic programs with research, service learning, academic support and scholarships individually developed fro each student. A key hypothesis is that it is not the lack of support services that limits student's success, but rather the intentional or unintentional decision not to participate in such programs. The broader impacts involve the integration of STEM mentoring faculty with underrepresented STEM students in the development of expanded learning communities (ELCs). The learning communities are to increase the participation of all categories of underrepresented students, by providing an extensive support network. The intent is that personalized mentoring will engage more students particularly those who may be first generation college students.