Supporting Undergraduate STEM Degree Completion Through a Learning Community/Cohort Model that Develops Belonging, Mindset, and Purpose

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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. Over its five-year duration, the project will support 30 students at Savannah State University, a Historically Black College/University. Two cohorts of 15 students will receive four-year scholarships to pursue baccalaureate STEM degrees in natural sciences, mathematics, and STEM technology. By linking scholarships with early support and community building, the project aims to increase student persistence and graduation in their STEM major through building students' academic mindset, purpose, and belonging within STEM. The project will implement a Learning Community/Cohort Model to engage Scholars within the STEM and University communities. These intentional efforts to engage Scholars will begin in their first-year of college and continue through graduation. Learning community activities will include shared classes, residence halls, study halls, tutoring, workshops, and social activities. Personalized activities to provide individual support will include early immersion in STEM courses, mentoring, intrusive advisement, undergraduate research experiences, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. With guidance from mentors, the students will develop Personal Development Plans outlining their career goals and the necessary steps to achieve those goals. Because more than 90% of students at Savannah State University are from underrepresented groups, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how early cohort-based interventions support retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. There are two specific objectives: 1) recruit, retain, and support 30 academically talented students with demonstrated financial need; and 2) develop an academic support program that has been validated by evaluation of program outcomes and findings from the research study. While the efficacy of First-year Learning Communities and Early Engagement are well established, less is known about how these practices build belonging, purpose, and a productive mindset in STEM students, including those from underrepresented groups. The project will build on preliminary data from University's coordinated efforts with the University System of Georgia's "Complete College Georgia Momentum Year Initiative," which focuses on first-year curricular reforms to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates. The project will measure the 30 scholars' academic and extracurricular milestones and outcomes against program objectives, and growth in the scholars' mindset, purpose, and belonging. The Scholars' results will be compared to a randomly selected control group of non-Scholars who have similar characteristics. Results of this project will be made available through scholarly publications, as well as local, regional, and national presentations. 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.