Supporting Retention and Graduation in STEM by Building Undergraduate Student's STEM Identity and Cultural Capital

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This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, it will support the education of STEM undergraduates at Maryville College, preparing them to meet the high demand for STEM employees in the Tennessee Technology Corridor. More than half of Maryville students are from low-income families, a population with significantly lower rates of STEM retention than their more affluent peers. As a result, the project is anticipated to have broad positive impact on STEM retention and graduation rates at Maryville College. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 18 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, math, and/or computer science. The project aims to increase retention in STEM for both Scholars and other low-income STEM majors, improve STEM identity and cultural capital in low-income STEM majors, and prepare STEM students for the workforce or graduate programs. Project activities include a summer experience, first-year STEM portfolio course, and integrated supports such as mentoring, tutoring, leadership opportunities, and career preparation. Cohort-based activities will be designed to develop students' STEM identity and promote a visible and effective campus-wide culture of STEM success.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Project activities will support increased preparation and centralized academic, professional, and social supports throughout Scholars' four-year academic career. Although the importance of identity in relation to STEM and cultural capital has been documented for underrepresented STEM students, the literature does not address the efficacy of centralized and coordinated STEM supports for low-income students at an undergraduate liberal arts college. A research study will examine the development of Scholars' and other STEM students' personal identities related to STEM, how the project activities support STEM engagement and learning, and the extent that computer programming becomes cultural capital at the College. The evaluation will determine the impact of program elements on the retention, graduation, and career placement of both Scholars and other STEM students and will generate evidence that can be used to support sustained programming and transferability to similar institutions. Dissemination will occur through online platforms, publications, and meetings with similar liberal arts colleges. This project is funded by NSF's 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 STEM workers 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.