Supporting Science, Mathematics, and Statistics Majors for University Success and Beyond

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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 at James Madison University, a primarily undergraduate institution. The project will fund scholarships or $10,000 each year for up to four years to 22 students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biotechnology, chemistry, biophysical chemistry, geology, mathematics, physics, and/or statistics. The project will use a comprehensive support structure to improve student retention and graduation rates. That structure will consist of several pairs of linked co-curricular supports. First is a summer transition program for incoming first-year students which will be leveraged by integrated semester-based seminars emphasizing cohort building. Second is a network of faculty and student mentors which will tie into early and continuing research opportunities with faculty mentorship. Finally, STEM career exploration and preparation will pair with enhanced academic and non-academic support services. Additionally, the project will conduct outreach activities linked to the support program and explore their impact on public scientific literacy. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The objectives of the project are to enroll 22 Scholars in two cohorts of 11 students; retain 85% of the scholars until their second year; graduate at least 70% of them in four years; and place 90% of the graduates in STEM-related careers or graduate school. This project will encompass a four-year, integrated student experience built around support structures, including summer bridge programs; faculty mentoring; research experiences; academic and career advising; peer tutoring; and seminars focused on refining skills needed for academic success. The project will determine if and how these structures improve a student’s sense of belonging, self-efficacy, engagement, and ultimately, retention, graduation, and employment. This project has the potential to determine which support structures are most effective in retaining and graduating STEM majors. The project will be evaluated using formative and summative mixed methods that will be aligned to project activities and objectives. Quantitative and qualitative data sources will include extant data, document review, online surveys, and interviews. To assess progress towards project goals (formative purposes), the evaluation will monitor implementation fidelity, success in meeting objectives, scholar progress, and student and faculty satisfaction with activities. The summative evaluation will include an assessment of overall attainment of project goals and the impacts of the project activities. 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.