A Comprehensive System for Undergraduates to Reach Goals in Education

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The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program will fund A Comprehensive System for Undergraduates to Reach Goals in Education (SURGE) project. The SURGE project will support the success of high-achieving, low-income STEM students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Over its four years, the project will fund 36 scholarships for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in mathematics. The project includes a comprehensive mentoring system involving faculty, doctoral students, and industrial scientists, as well as opportunities for undergraduate research. Scholarship recipients will have support to achieve a successful transition from being a student into industrial careers or graduate studies. This project will foster a collaboration between UTA with two large community college systems in the area: the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) and Tarrant County College (TCC). The SURGE project will build on an existing mathematics learning community, anchored by the local student chapter of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). In addition to close interactions with their mentors, the students will have opportunities to take on leadership roles in the local MAA chapter, enabling peer mentorship among all mathematics majors. The SURGE project will also host regular activities for students and mathematics professors at DCCCD and TCC. This outreach seeks to catalyze interactions between the institutions, with the goal of supporting a smooth transition of students from a community college to the mathematics degree program at UTA. Through data collection and studies that compare the scholarship recipients with other mathematics majors at UTA, the project aims to identify key factors that increase the number of students who complete the mathematics degree program, as well as reduce the time to graduation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.