Rural Discovery Scholars: Providing Targeted Services and Role Models to Increase STEM Preparedness in Rural Students

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Through the Rural Discovery Scholars (RDS) program, Westminster College will recruit 20 low-income, rural, and academically talented students majoring in biology, molecular biology, chemistry, biochemistry, environmental science, or materials science. Each scholar will receive scholarship support for four years. RDS will provide targeted services that address the unique challenges faced by low-income rural students, such as low parental expectations, unfamiliarity with college and science careers, and a lack of role models. These barriers can be overcome by increasing students' self-efficacy and sense of belonging, which will provide the resilience to enable them to succeed in a STEM field. RDS elements are designed to help students successfully transition to the college environment and ultimately a career. A research study that examines how best to retain and integrate these students into science professions will benefit other small institutions that serve similar populations of rural students. The RD scholars will graduate from a high-quality educational program that will prepare them to transition to graduate school or the STEM workforce, thus providing increased numbers of well-educated, skilled workers in STEM-related fields. RDS will implement the following activities: (1) recruitment of rural high school students in surrounding counties, including on-campus visitation days that include career awareness and parent information sessions; (2) scholarship support to eliminate unmet need; (3) an enhanced first-year experience that includes science reasoning skills; (4) peer tutoring for challenging first-year science courses; (5) a living-learning community to promote cohort support for science students; (6) faculty, peer, and alumni mentoring to provide role models, academic support, and a view into outside employment and careers; (7) off-campus summer research and internship opportunities; and (8) a Transition to Careers Workshop and a seminar series on career awareness. With guidance from an education researcher, all project elements will be assessed for their effects on retention, graduation, and eventual employment in the workforce or admission to graduate school, and the project will generate evidence that can be used to support sustained programming and transferability to similar institutions. Findings from this project have the potential to inform how STEM students are supported during their undergraduate education.