S-STEM Research Hub: Investigating How Low-Income Students Approach Non-Tuition Expenses

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This S-STEM Research Hub 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. This hub, housed in the Hope Center at Temple University, focuses on STEM affordability and will explore non-tuition barriers for low-income students at community colleges. STEM graduates from all backgrounds can propel a vibrant economy driven by innovation. There is evidence that positive outcomes have come from expanding scholarship opportunities and co-curricular activities. Despite this progress, stark societal inequities affecting students’ persistence, transfer, and degree completion rates are impeding successful entry into the STEM workforce. This is especially the case at the nation’s community colleges, where an estimated 1 in 2 graduates with degrees in a STEM field get their start. Many community college students face significant economic challenges, including growing evidence that many have inadequate and inequitable access to food, housing, and other essentials. Hub research focus on exploring how low-income students interact with various support mechanisms. These data will be used to develop and study interventions intended to connect low-income students with key supports, such as food or housing support.The hub will collaborate with 10 community colleges in five states to examine the challenges community college STEM students face in covering non-tuition expenses. Research will focus on STEM community college students' specific challenges when it comes to addressing non-tuition expenses. The project will examine practices and programs available to STEM community college students and explore how they are being used. It will also investigate how low-cost interventions can help connect STEM community college students to supports for addressing their non-tuition expenses. Each participating institution will administer the validated #RealCollege survey to all students and link the outcomes to student records. The instrument includes questions about the non-tuition expenses students’ face and how they seek to cover them. Other data sources include an analysis of state-level programs and focus groups with administrators, staff, and faculty. These data will be used to design and deploy approaches intended to connect low-income STEM students with resources, and to assess whether these supports help students reach greater levels of success. Specifically, the hub will conduct a randomized control study to examine the impacts of low-cost, light-touch “nudges” on students’ usage of non-tuition support programs. Project outcomes will make it easier for millions of low-income adults seeking STEM credentials to obtain those degrees and certificates, improving effectiveness and outcomes for the nation’s community colleges. Results and interventions will be disseminated through seminars, presentations, journal publications and via the Hope Center website and social media accounts. This hub 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.