Clear Path - Bachelor's Degree Completion Scholarships

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This National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) project at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania will increase the timely baccalaureate degree completion rate among students transferring from community college in selected STEM fields. The Clear Path Project will include partnerships with Lehigh Carbon County Community College, Luzerne County Community College, and Northampton County Community College. Students transferring to four-year degree programs frequently lack critical prerequisite coursework and knowledge resulting in many students leaving STEM or slowing their time towards graduation. STEM transfer students are also less likely to develop campus level social support or participate in high impact practices like undergraduate research, peer mentoring and community-based learning. Through Clear Path, the partnering schools will provide cohort activities, social support, and scholarships to students who begin their education in an open access environment to aid in timely baccalaureate degree completion. The project will study how involvement in these high impact practices by community college students prior to transferring leads to improvements in student success such as increased retention and reduced time to degree completion. Scholarships and support for academically strong students, who may not otherwise be able to afford college, will help to produce a well-trained STEM workforce that will contribute to the economic growth of Pennsylvania and the nation.The program organization is informed by research indicating that a significant reason for STEM attrition of community college transfer students is incomplete preparation prior to transfer both in terms of prerequisite courses and the skills and behaviors associated with persistence and success in STEM degree completion. Through Clear Path, promising community college STEM students will be identified and recruited for program scholarships during their first year at community college. This group of students will also begin receiving support, training, and mentoring while still at a community college. The social support and cohort activities will aid in the development of academic adaptive psychological mechanisms, for example, persistence and study behaviors, associated with college student success. How the developmental mechanisms associated with academic success are affected by specific high impact practices will be evaluated. A multivariate examination of the association between the developmental mechanisms and academic achievement, with and without the inclusion of demographic data, will also occur. Further investigation of the role of the cohort activities will clarify how each activity facilitates student participation in high impact practices, improves developmental mechanisms, and results in ultimate academic success. Any differences seen in the benefits of providing resources while students are still enrolled in community college versus only after they matriculate to a four-year institution can also be evaluated. Information from all of these findings can be used to inform policies and practices at community colleges and four-year institutions. The findings from the program will be disseminated widely to the STEM education community and help increase understanding of the attributes and practices of successful student scholarship and support programs for community college transfer students.