Financial, Academic, Social, and Mental Health Supports to Improve STEM Undergraduate Student Retention and Graduation

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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, this project at Merrimack College in North Andover Massachusetts will provide 20 students with four years of scholarship support and specialized support services with the goal of recruiting, retaining, and graduating students with a four-year STEM degree. Students will progress through the program in three cohorts, two of seven students beginning in the first and second years, and a third of six students beginning in the third year. Research questions will explore the complex interactions among financial, social, emotional, and mental health factors and their influences on STEM undergraduate student retention and academic success. A novel element of the proposed program is the inclusion of a mental health professional as part of the program team to provide wellness resources for students.The project’s research goals are to quantify student grit, resilience, and other factors over the course of the program and will use statistical analysis to probe the interactions between these factors and student success. The Scholars will participate in group programming designed to improve their resilience, connection to the STEM field, and academic skills. The investigators will use multiple statistical analyses, including repeated measures with a within-between interaction, as well as qualitative assessments to test the hypothesis that the Scholars will evidence greater psychological resiliency and academic achievement outcomes relative to a) themselves over time and b) their matched controls. Additionally, regression analyses will be used to assess what variables are most predictive of student academic performance and structural equation modeling will allow for the current project to assess the underlying theoretical model of the relationships between variables. 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.