HSI Implementation & Evaluation Project: Alverno College STEM Community Impact Program (SCIP)

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to increase retention and graduation of STEM majors through focused community engagement activities to enhance STEM identity. As a women’s college serving primarily first-generation, low-income students, more than half women of color, Alverno College will use this project to broaden participation of underrepresented minorities and women in STEM, who lag in STEM degree attainment and STEM workforce participation.

Increasing racial/ethnic and gender diversity in STEM is a recognized strategy to expand the STEM workforce.

This project utilizes evidence that women and underserved students in STEM are motivated by directly experiencing the ways that STEM benefits their communities. The project will directly engage 400 students enrolled in STEM courses, including approximately 125 STEM majors, in activities that connect supportive communities to STEM curricular and co-curricular experiences.

The project engages all STEM majors in introductory and capstone community-service activities. It extends peer mentoring to all STEM majors and raises the profile of community engagement. The project engages our external community in a cooperative relationship, recognizing the intersection between STEM and students’ social/community identities.

The project will leverage the importance of family support to students of color and women in college success, choice of major and career. A professional mentorship network between current STEM students and alumni will capitalize on evidence that professional Latinx/ Hispanic role models influence STEM success. Ongoing faculty development in culturally responsive teaching and a formalized administrative support structure will expand project impact across the college.

Alverno’s project will advance knowledge by investigating the impact of a community engagement program on STEM identity, improving retention and graduation into STEM careers. The program will measure the association between level of engagement in project activities and college retention, and will analyze participant reflections to understand STEM identity development.

This work will identify which aspects of the program had the greatest impact on decisions to enter and remain in STEM and to pursue STEM-related careers. It is anticipated that 100% of STEM majors will participate in community engagement activities and that graduates will develop realistic expectations of STEM which is critical in meeting community needs.

Alverno’s project will provide a scalable, replicable model for other HSIs to adapt. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

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.