The Sci-Tech Scholars Enrichment Project

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With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the SciTech Scholars Enrichment Project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a Historically Black College & University (HBCU). This S-STEM Track 2 project will focus on understanding the factors that nurture minority participation in the STEM workforce. SciTech will award 100 scholarships over five years to undergraduate students majoring in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and electronics technology, all of which are areas of national need. This project will address a persistent challenge in STEM education: understanding which activities and interventions will produce the most efficient pipeline-building strategies. This project has the potential to increase and diversify the STEM workforce, deepen knowledge about the challenges faced by underprivileged STEM students at an HBCU, and develop the teaching skills of future underrepresented minority faculty. SciTech Scholars aims to increase the number and graduation rate of students majoring in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and electronics technology. It also aims to prepare the students to successfully embark on graduate studies or enter the STEM workforce. SciTech Scholars will employ student-centered active learning classroom activities, increased hands-on curricula, and a focus on positive encouragement rather than on perceived student deficiencies. The institutional goal of the project has two parts: 1) develop and test a model for student success that can be used across the University to mentor underrepresented minority students in STEM; and 2) identify methods that support the development of students, both minority and non-minority groups, for STEM-related graduate programs or the STEM workforce. The project will recruit twenty academically talented low-income students enrolled in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and electronics technology each year for five years. It will employ a program model that exposes students to research early in the curriculum, incorporates study groups, and involves department chairs and faculty in all aspects of the program, including recruitment, teaching, mentoring research as well as special events and activities. The model will be coupled with a living learning community and support for student-centered active learning. By studying the experiences, challenges, and successes of SciTech participants, the project aims to advance the knowledge needed to design and develop solutions to critical gaps from matriculation 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.