STEP Forward: STEM Talent Expansion Program for Women and Under Represented Group Recruitment and Retention Development

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This project is based on the premise that many of today's youth and young adults do not recognize the opportunities and rewards of a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), have never met a STEM professional, and have no idea what kind of work one does. In addition, some students who are interested in STEM believe that they should not pursue a STEM degree because of their gender, ethnic background, educational environment, or stage of life. Finally, some undergraduate STEM majors may fail to complete a STEM degree due to insufficient knowledge about effective study habits or a lack of resources to support them throughout their student years. This STEP project is creating and supporting a retention and recruitment program to counter all of these barriers. The program is built on and integrated with existing successful undergraduate recruiting and retention programs at the university. New retention efforts include the creation of student groups focusing on activities in their major (e.g. Seminars for Undergraduate Research Experiences, SURE), undergraduate research opportunities, and a new freshmen project course. The recruiting programs include STEP Forward (a summer day camp for 11th and 12th graders, Women in Engineering (WIE-UH), a support system for entering female STEM students, a set of seminars for present and future high school math and science teachers, and a freshman level undergraduate research opportunity. These efforts are designed to both enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience for all students and to attract new and typically under-represented students into the STEM fields. Broadening participation in STEM majors is a major goal of this project. The University of Houston is already one of the most diverse urban research institutions in the nation. Project efforts are continuing, however, to recruit more students from underrepresented groups into STEM areas, particularly those who will be the first generation in college for their families. A dominant theme of the project's strategies is the creation of various research experiences. The WIE-UH program includes presentations by female faculty members to describe their research efforts. The principal goal of the seminars for the high school teachers is to acquaint the teachers with the broad range of STEM research being conducted at the University. The SURE program allows a larger number of undergraduates to learn about the discovery based programs in their major field, while the two undergraduate research programs give a smaller number of them the opportunity for one-on-one mentored research experiences with our faculty.