Mentoring, Research, Leadership, and Community to Increase Undergraduate Retention and Graduation in STEM

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Mentoring, Research, Leadership, and Community to Increase Graduation in STEMWith funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Saint Joseph's University. Throughout its five years of funding, this project will provide four-year scholarships to two cohorts of eight students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, or physics. The project will provide a suite of student support and engagement activities, including long-term research opportunities, structured faculty and peer mentoring, leadership skill development, and career advising. These activities are designed to increase recruitment, retention, and successful graduation in STEM fields of study. Through academic and social nurturing, this project aims to produce cohorts of graduates who can become intellectual leaders and role models in their respective disciplines and in the community.The project will provide the following support components: aggressive recruitment and outreach to high schools with a high proportion of the targeted student population, intensive faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, undergraduate research and internship opportunities, leadership and community service programs, cohort building activities, and career development. The project will investigate variation in the effectiveness of mentoring interventions on retention and graduation rates of academically talented, low income students, with particular attention of the processes of faculty/student interaction. They will investigate what factors influence the effectiveness of these interactions. In assessing impacts of social interaction on identity, this research will generate insights that can be useful to similar programs for low-income students at similar institutions. Saint Joseph's University will develop recommendations based on their results and disseminate the recommendations to other programs seeking to increase the retention, interest, and career trajectory of STEM students from low-income backgrounds.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.