The STEM Ambassadors Program: Building An Inclusive Community of Scholars through Mentoring and Research

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To maintain global competitiveness and a high standard of living for its citizens, the nation requires a strong scientific and technical workforce. Evidence is mounting on the importance of student participation in a ecosystem of activities designed to support success in academic programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). An important element is participation in authentic undergraduate research experiences, that in its traditional form is a resource-intensive activity. The STEM Ambassadors Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and its partner institutions (Holyoke Community College and University of Massachusetts, Boston) will develop and test a scalable low-cost model for offering authentic research experiences to STEM students using Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) as a component of a network of activities for student success. The research team will investigate academic success using a Social Cognitive Career Theory framework to identify and examine cognitive, contextual, and cultural variables that impact student trajectories in their academic programs. The multi-site longitudinal mixed methods comparative study tests the hypothesis that student success, retention, and graduation in STEM are affected by institutional context, student formal course load, engagement in research, participation in a network of formal and informal mentors and advisors, volunteering in a variety of STEM outreach activities, and participation in a rich offering of STEM-related social events. With regards to intellectual merit, The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) framework suggests that career interests are shaped by socio-cognitive and behavioral inputs over time and are influenced by environmental supports and barriers. The multi-site sequential-explanatory study will utilize a qualitative wave of data collection to explain and inform the Hierarchical Linear Modeling of individual growth over time. Quantitative data include repeated measures of key SCCT constructs, such as STEM self-efficacy STEM outcome expectations, and STEM interest and goals. Control groups are sampled from the population of students that were eligible and invited to STEM AP, but did not join. Regarding broader impacts, findings from the research will contribute to a growing body of literature on increasing student success for a diverse population of students pursuing degrees in STEM.