Mentoring, Development, and Engagement of Diverse STEM Students at a Large, Public, Urban University

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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 in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) at the University of Houston (UH). UH is designated a Hispanic and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving institution and ranks in the top ten by US News and World Report for student ethnic diversity. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 24 unique full-time students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in the Departments of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics. Incoming first-year students will receive scholarship support from their first year through graduation. In addition, scholars will engage with high quality faculty mentors and take part in curricular and extra-curricular activities to develop a sense of belonging. The scholarship program will reach many students underrepresented in the sciences and help promote their academic success.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There will be a critical need for STEM majors over the next decade as the projected growth of STEM-related jobs in Texas, including the Houston region, is expected to grow by 24% over the next decade. This project will engage students in high quality faculty mentoring interactions, research, professional development, and outreach and social activities to support their academic success. That success is expected to increase graduation rates, and hence increase diversity in the workforce and in graduate school, leading to the promotion of economic mobility for low-income families. In addition, this project will contribute to understanding to what extent scholarship support and engagement in program activities affect scholars’ perceived experience in STEM and at UH, focusing on which activities were critical to their success. These results will supplement the existing knowledge base on the impact of student engagement in curricular and co-curricular activities on retention and graduation and contribute to the literature on support systems needed for STEM student success. 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.