Access to Innovative Education: Providing Learning Opportunities and Scholarships for Neurodivergent Students in STEM

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This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists and computer scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Landmark College. This institution is one of just two colleges in the U.S. that focuses exclusively on serving students who have a learning difference, including learning disabilities such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and/or autism, collectively referred to as neurodiverse (ND) students. Over its six-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 36 undergraduate students who are pursuing either an associate’s or a bachelor’s degree in life sciences and/or computer science. First-year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support, and transfer and associate degree students will receive up to two years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including mentoring, undergraduate research experiences, internships, career preparation, and participation in robust cohort activities. With the help of mentors and cohort activities, the scholars will outline their career goals and steps toward achieving those goals. Scholars will be drawn from the Landmark College student body, which consists of 100% ND students, so this project has the potential to diversify participation in STEM fields and to learn how mentoring and individual development plans support retention and graduation of this student population. The project focuses on how effective mentoring leads to better outcomes for ND students in STEM fields and how to form a stronger STEM identity leading to positive experiences in internships and undergraduate research. The project proposes concrete strategies for increasing the number of ND students who are STEM-ready for the opportunities in today’s workforce. The overall goal of the project is to increase diversity and degree completion of ND undergraduates in STEM fields. This project builds on Landmark College’s current institutional student supports. Psychosocial, non-cognitive factors, such as academic perseverance, social skills, learning strategies, and academic mindsets, have generally been demonstrated to influence student persistence in STEM. However, little is known about how these factors affect neurodiverse students at bachelor’s and associate degree-granting liberal arts colleges. This project will investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on ND student persistence in STEM and, more specifically, will explore how cohort support components support autistic students. This project investigates the possibility that the peer support class promotes increased student responsibility and cohort cohesion. This project will also investigate the possibility that the scholars develop a healthy disability identity and an identity in a STEM field of study while persevering in their major because of participating in the mentoring activities of the project. This project has the potential to advance understanding of psychosocial factors on ND student persistence in STEM and early career access. This project will be evaluated via a mixed method approach using information from the cohort activities and mentoring activities. Results will be made available on the Landmark College website, as well as through regional and national conferences and publications. 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.