Intensive Student Supports to Increase Persistence and Completion of STEM Associate Degrees

This project will contribute to the national need for well-prepared scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The project is at GateWay Community College, one of ten colleges within the Maricopa County Community College District.

The project team is looking to build a replicable STEM scholarship model that can expand beyond Phoenix and Maricopa County. Over the five-year duration of the project, at least 30 new students will receive up to two years of scholarship support. These STEM Scholars will be enrolled as a cohort to enable their joint participation in structured curricular and co-curricular activities.

The project aims to create a community of support within each STEM Scholar cohort. This type of learning community will feature a combination of mandatory and optional student supports, including a summer bridge program, faculty mentoring/advising, math courses taught with supplemental instruction, and a variety of STEM club activities. This support is expected to establish a learning environment that provides an efficient pathway to academic success, degree completion, and entry into the workforce or four-year STEM degree programs.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims are to: (1) recruit students and provide financial support for their full-time enrollment; (2) provide evidence-based intensive academic support early and often throughout the associate STEM degree path; (3) generate new knowledge that can be used to explore and develop resources that support timely degree completion for a diverse population of students.

The project team hypothesizes that STEM Scholars who receive mandatory, holistic supports will complete the associate degree at higher rates and in less time than a control group of students. Additionally, the STEM Scholars are expected to complete their degree with a higher program GPA. Finally, underrepresented STEM Scholars are expected to complete their degrees at similar rates and time as non-minoritized STEM Scholars.

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.