Growing Pathways to STEM (Project GPS)

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Project Growing Pathways to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Project GPS) will provide scholarships for 25 academically talented, low-income students pursuing Associate of Science degrees in STEM fields. The project will focus on rural students in the State of Nebraska, and will work with local high schools that offer both dual credit and career pathways, to assist in early identification and recruitment of academically talented scholars. Students will benefit from mentorship through networking, team-building, and practical career experience, that includes unique, collaborative college-industry partnerships. Support services will address financial and academic support barriers specific to rural student success. Project GPS will investigate an interventionist model of the relationships between mentors, cohorts, students, and industry. This potentially transformative model is possible through college-industry-community partnerships. These partnerships will bridge established gaps that inhibit student success, and help students develop critical thinking skills needed for life beyond the community college. An Immersive Service Learning Experience (ISLE) will provide an intensive orientation experience and include a summer component with student participation in independent/collaborative research, a cooperative education program, or industry internship/job shadow experiences influenced by cohort composition and local business/industry input. All ISLE projects will incorporate global sustainability concepts on a local scale, with intended measurable benefits in and beyond the local community. The project will generate new knowledge regarding the engagement and support of rural, community college students, and effective practices for supporting their degree completion and transfer to baccalaureate degree programs or entry into the STEM workforce.