Developing an Inclusive National Model to Support the Success of Low-Income Graduate Students in STEM

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 Texas Rio Grande Valley, which is a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over the 5-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 60 unique full-time students who are pursuing graduate degrees in Mathematics or Physics.

Incoming graduate students will receive up to two years of scholarship support. This project will provide pathways to graduate study in mathematics or physics to a broad set of students, including those with strong quantitative skills in STEM from other disciplines that may not have majored in mathematics or physics. To build a level playing field for all project scholars independent of their prior access or support, a bridge program from an undergraduate to a doctoral degree will be established.

This will build student skills through suggested course sequences and intensive mentoring, bridging the gap in preparation, confidence, and resilience, without increasing time to graduation. This project will support Masters’ students, who are interested in doctoral studies and who will be among the top of their class in terms of academic preparation.

Because the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has a very high proportion of Hispanic students, this project has the potential to significantly broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how amalgamated evidence-based student support and mentoring techniques support progression through graduate school and graduation with advanced mathematics or physics degrees in this student population. Another important broader impact is the project's strong potential to increase the number of domestic low-income students in doctoral programs, who in turn could become the faculty of the future in Physics and Mathematics - an urgent national need.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project will provide a strong foundation in mathematics and physics for students that includes positive culture, resources, and preparation needed for graduate study in mathematics or physics. This project will emphasize best practices in mentoring, including both high expectations and academic support, integrated with holistic, non-dyadic mentoring, a strong psychosocial component, community-building activities, and career preparation.

The project will study the effectiveness of these approaches in a cohort that will involve the current population of students at the institution. This project will investigate the impact that the academic programs and the resulting learning communities have on student retention, timely progression through graduate programs, self-efficacy and confidence, positive perception of their mentorship partnerships, and confidence in their own mentoring abilities.

Overall, this project will advance the understanding of best mentoring practices in a geographic area serving a Hispanic majority. Results of this project will be disseminated via presentations at local and national conferences as well as publications in math and physics education journals and a website and newsletters featuring cohort activities and student research.

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.