Multilevel Mentoring to Improve Belonging, Metacognition, and Science Identity of Bachelor Degree-Seeking Science and Mathematics Students

This project will contribute to the national need for well-prepared scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Denison University, a private, liberal arts college. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 32 undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics, or Computer Science.

These Scholars will be admitted in four cohorts of eight students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase student graduation in STEM fields by linking scholarships to a multilevel mentoring program designed to help students acclimate to campus, progress academically, grow as researchers, and prepare for the STEM workforce.

This project has the potential to increase understanding about how to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how multilevel mentoring can support retention and graduation of low-income students in STEM.

The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The four primary aims of the project are to: (1) provide financial support to low-income students; (2) create a cohort structure designed to increase Scholars' feelings of belonging; (3) Implement a multilevel program of peer, academic, research, and career mentoring; and (4) engage in formal assessment and evaluation to explore the role of mentoring in developing Scholars' sense of belonging, science identity, and metacognition, while also increasing persistence and STEM graduation.

Though each component of this project has been demonstrated to affect student persistence in STEM, little is known about the use of multilevel mentoring on metacognition and science identity. As such, this project may increase understanding about how effective mentoring may support STEM student success by affecting key factors such as science identity and metacognition.

Project results will be made available through an established regional network of liberal arts colleges, presentations at national professional conferences and publications in venues focused on post-secondary STEM education. 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.