Academic Opportunities through Recruitment, Retention & Mentoring for Undergraduate Biotechnology Students with Financial Need

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This project responds to the national need for highly-qualified scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving STEM undergraduates with financial need. Over its five-year duration, the project plans to provide one- to four-year scholarships to 30 students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in Plant Science-Biotechnology. To increase the persistence of the Scholars in the biotechnology major, scholarships will be linked with effective student support activities, including common course scheduling, peer mentoring, and opportunities for research and/or internships. Scholars will gain workforce experience through field trips, workshops, and career placement services. Fort Valley State University is a historically Black university with a high population of rural, first-generation, and underrepresented students. Consequently, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM, particularly in biological sciences and biotechnology. It will also promote workforce development by developing synergistic partnerships between the University and regional biotechnology industry partners.The overall goal of this project is to increase degree completion of low-income, academically high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. To meet this goal, the project will recruit students from eight regional high schools and regional community colleges. These Scholars will join a structured cohort that will engage in targeted academic and career programs that are intended to increase retention and student success. The project will address the following research questions: 1) What motivates academically-talented STEM students from low-income backgrounds, including underrepresented and rural students, to pursue careers in biotechnology, and how do the findings fit into existing literature regarding the motivations of students in STEM fields? 2) Do commonly-accepted findings regarding associations between student engagement with high impact educational practices and improved academic outcomes remain valid within the context of a rural HBCU serving a predominantly low-income, first-generation population of students? 3) Do discernable patterns of behavior exist regarding the utilization of available student support services by low-income, academically-talented students at a rural HBCU? Data will be gathered about student engagement, performance, retention, and characteristics such as changes in science identity and self-efficacy. Analysis of these data will help to determine which interventions were most effective for motivating and retaining students in STEM programs and promoting their entry into the STEM workforce or STEM graduate programs. The project has the potential to advance knowledge about how undergraduate research projects can support retention of students in STEM majors. This project is funded by the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.