Building a sense of belonging in STEM students through research, networking, and community engagement

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 the University of Dubuque. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships (through 4 cohorts of 6 students each) to twenty-four (24) unique high-achieving, low-income undergraduate majors in biology, chemistry, and environmental science at the University.

The project will support students through a combination of financial assistance and curricular and co-curricular support. Scholars will be selected during their first academic year and will be financially supported throughout the three remaining years of their undergraduate education. Additional support will include opportunities for students to carry out team-based, student-driven research projects under the mentorship of faculty.

The students also will participate in direct workforce experiences by engaging in the planning and execution of a service-learning project. The combination of these components will enable students to build self-efficacy in the STEM arena and to develop meaningful relationships and networks among peers, faculty, the community, and industry.

To increase retention, STEM degree completion, and workforce placement of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to implement evidence-based, high impact pedagogical techniques and innovative vocational components for supporting student personal growth, synergistic team building, and academic and career pathways to success.

Second is to study through mixed-methods project evaluation the effectiveness of the combination of strategies. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base to help guide other colleges to implement similar programs successfully. Fourth is to integrate student research, service learning, and community partnerships to improve career preparation and job placement, directly filling needs in the region.

To reach project goals, the investigators will embrace the theoretical basis that, regardless of race, gender, or income status, students need to feel a sense of belonging to have academic and career success within the STEM arena. In connection to this, the project will provide a supportive environment for scholarly growth and sense of belonging in the sciences to prepare students for success in their STEM careers.

The intellectual merit of this unique combination of research and vocational skill development within a collaborative community in the sciences will provide a stronger STEM population and workforce, and will further increase STEM-based relationships throughout the broader community. This project will be evaluated through multiple mixed-methods measures that will be integrated at different points during the duration of this project.

Student’s research and service-learning projects will be disseminated at various conferences and through publications. Insights and outcomes from emanating from project evaluation will generate new knowledge on which aspects of the project's support interventions, or combination of interventions, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, and overall success of students.

The lines of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support students with a combination of curricular and co-curricular interventions. 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.