Supporting Undergraduates from Community College to Excel and Succeed in STEM

This planning project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by exploring mechanisms to support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need who would transfer from the Early College Program operating at Alamance Community College (ACC) to Elon University. Over its 2-year duration, this project will build a pathway for students to transfer from an early college program at ACC to Elon, a four-year institution, to pursue bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and/or Physics.

Key activities include building collaborative relationships between STEM faculty and administrators, as well as with the offices of admissions, institutional research, and financial aid at partner institutions to determine the potential number of eligible scholarship recipients and scholarship amounts. The project will also support a robust needs assessment to guide the development, execution, and evaluation of pilot programming for STEM students and faculty.

Such pilot programming includes a faculty professional development workshop series on inclusive teaching, inclusive mentoring, and intercultural competence for faculty from each institution. In addition, a student development workshop series is envisioned to help students build skills and mindsets for academic success, by covering topics such as study groups, authentic goal-setting, seeking tutoring, resilience, self-efficacy, self-advocacy, growth mindset, and stereotype threat.

The project aims to empower students to persist to earn undergraduate STEM degrees and enter STEM careers. Existing investments in engaged learning and student support infrastructure will be leveraged to support the project. This project has the potential to advance understanding of how strategic partnerships can leverage resources and programming to positively affect the recruitment, retention, graduation of high-achieving, low-income students who transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions.

To increase STEM degree completion for high-achieving, low-income undergraduates with demonstrated financial need the project will pursue five goals. First is to build a pathway for high-achieving, low income students transferring from ACC to Elon by creating a leadership team of administrators and STEM faculty from the collaborating institutions. Second is to assess the academic, social, and/or cognitive needs of faculty and students as well as the financial and programming structures of the collaborating institutions.

Third is to determine the potential number of eligible scholarship recipients and scholarship amounts. Fourth is to pilot and evaluate programming for STEM students and faculty that is informed by the needs assessment. Fifth is to develop a future Track 3 S-STEM proposal with robust evaluation and dissemination plans.

Financial, academic, and mentoring support are demonstrated strategies to increase student persistence in STEM. Many 4-year colleges and universities have the resources and infrastructure to promote student retention and success. However, little is known about the efficacy of these resources for high-achieving, low-income students who transfer from community colleges to complete STEM degrees.

The project will investigate if the perceived needs and expectations of STEM transfer students and STEM faculty align with those documented in the literature. It will also explore the intersections of STEM faculty and transfer student perceptions and expectations. The project has the potential to show that aligning the perceived needs and expectations of STEM faculty and transfer students can enhance student persistence in STEM.

Evaluation methods include quantitative and qualitative surveys, focus groups, and asset mapping to characterize needs and expectations as well as quantitative data on students and faculty from collaborating institutions. Results of this project will be disseminated at STEM education conferences to advance understanding of factors that influence broadening participation in STEM fields and to encourage additional strategic partnerships that leverage resources between 4-year colleges and universities and community colleges.

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.