Alleviating Transfer Shock in Community College STEM Students

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With 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 Gaston College in North Carolina. This project aims to award 90 one-year scholarships over five years to 30 different STEM students; support will be available for up to two years at the community college, and up to two semesters after transfer to a four-year STEM degree program. The aims of the project are to improve retention, course success, degree attainment, and transfer success of students in the Gaston College Associate of Science and Associate of Engineering degree programs. Community colleges are the entry point to higher education for many low income and demographic groups that are underrepresented in STEM careers. Thus, by identifying practices that most effectively promote student success both at the community college and after transfer, this project can provide a model for community colleges and their university partners. Using Tinto's model of academic and social integration as its theoretical basis, this program will implement activities that build students' academic cultural capital, maintain student interest in STEM, and increase student success in STEM majors, particularly for underrepresented populations. These activities include academic supports in the form of learning community participation, professional tutoring, faculty mentoring, success coaching, and targeted advising, as well as co-curricular activities that support STEM identity formation. After transfer, cohort graduates will benefit academically and socially by maintaining contact with their original support networks via virtual mentoring and web-based discussion boards through which they can share experiences, find campus resources, and get advice and support, thereby reducing the effects of transfer shock. Many of the activities, such as participation in learning communities, have been shown to be effective in increasing retention and graduation among STEM majors. However, little research has been done to examine the impact that maintaining a connection to the original learning community has on transfer shock. This project aims to address this gap in current knowledge and continue to advance understanding of activities associated with community college student retention, transfer between institutions, and degree attainment.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.