NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Expanding the First2 STEM Success Network

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Developing and maintaining a diverse, innovative workforce in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (known as STEM) is critical to American competitiveness in the world, but national surveys report a current and future shortage of highly qualified STEM professionals in the US. One problem creating this shortage is that more than half of all college students who declare a major in STEM fields drop out or change their majors in the first two years of their post-secondary education. This problem is particularly acute for first generation college students. If we could increase the STEM degree completion rate by just 25%, we would make up 75% of the additional workforce needed over the next decade. This project assembles undergraduate students, K-12 educators, college faculty and policy makers in West Virginia to form the First2 STEM Success Alliance. The Alliance aims to improve the college enrollment rate and success of undergraduate STEM students, with emphasis on rural first generation students through their first 2 years of college. At the core of our shared vision to improve student STEM success is the assumption that the students themselves should be co-creators of the solutions. The First2 Alliance will engage over 350 undergraduate FG students in the NICs, research internships, peer-mentoring activities, and the FIRST Ambassador Program. As FIRST Ambassadors, students are guided to explore the disconnect between home life and STEM study, and conduct outreach to hometown students and K-12 stakeholders, their collegiate institutions, and their state legislators to illuminate the disconnect and suggest policy/practice changes to better support rural first generation STEM student success. Our change strategy is to implement the proven methodologies of Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) to study, improve and replicate promising programs that impact STEM persistence. Specifically, First2 Improvement teams will: 1) improve preparation for and transition to college; 2) replace ingrained institutional practices that stifle the development of STEM self-efficacy with 3) connect rural home culture and college STEM culture. As a rural state, West Virginia lags behind in the development of networks, alliances and long-term collaborations. The First2 Student Success Alliance will execute a comprehensive plan to build organizational capacity for a long-term Alliance, which includes a permanent hub organization and in so doing we will learn how to collaborate effectively and will document what we learn. The First2 Alliance model can be disseminated to assist other rural states in developing their own STEM-capable workforce. Finally, the First2 Alliance will advance our knowledge of barriers to and solutions that increase the success of first generation students in STEM. There are many studies that inquire into the factors that correlate with post-secondary retention in general, and with STEM attrition specifically but few that focus on rural students. The First2 Alliance will conduct a rigorous educational research study aimed at advancing understanding of the factors affecting rural students' entry into and persistence in STEM career pathways. From an improvement science and research perspective, we hypothesize that our work will apply to improving the persistence of all first generation STEM students, not just rural students.This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is co-funded by the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program. EPSCoR enhances research competitiveness of targeted jurisdictions (states, territories, commonwealth) by strengthening STEM capacity and capability.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.