At the Confluence: Supporting Critical Transitions for Graduate Students in Sustainable Watersheds Research

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 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 45 unique full-time students who are pursuing a graduate degree in Environmental Sciences, Civil Engineering, Biology, or Chemistry.

Graduate students will receive two-year scholarships to support completion of a Master of Science degree. Scholars’ research will contribute to the scientific understanding of sustainable watersheds using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches and cross-cutting skills frequently sought by local and regional employers. Graduates will be prepared to address the significant environmental challenges posed by human modifications and alterations to watersheds, including impacts resulting from climate change.

Scholars will receive a suite of co-curricular supports designed for students transitioning to graduate school and emerging as a member of the scientific community, including orientation and professional workshops, peer and faculty mentoring, career panels, and enhanced coursework. In addition, this graduate-level project is significant as an extension of an established undergraduate model of persistence and retention.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project's goals are: 1) Provide scholarship support to academically talented students with unmet financial need to pursue their master’s degree at SIUE and conduct watershed science research; 2) Provide an integrated set of curricular and co-curricular activities, based on theories of institutional and scientific community integration, to support student transition to master’s-level education; and 3) Evaluate the Watershed Scholars model of curricular and co-curricular activities to identify key elements that help graduate students make critical transitions in higher education.

A pilot study showed that SIUE graduate students’ experiences align with a persistence and success model proposed by researchers for undergraduate education. To advance understanding of the model’s validity, this project will adapt and study academic and social integration, through financial, curricular, and co-curricular supports, at the master’s level.

Concurrently, the project will provide STEM faculty with skills to holistically recruit, mentor, and support masters’ students. Project evaluation will determine quantitative gains for Watershed Scholars and differences between them and non-participant members of their entering class along with qualitative evidence of implementation quality and fidelity.

The project model and scientific research will be of interest to the STEM education community and watershed scientists. Thus, dissemination will include a variety of professional conferences, education and scientific journals, and an institution-hosted website. 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.