Multi-tiered Peer Mentoring and Experiential Learning for Academically Talented, Low-Income STEM Students

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 McMurry University. McMurry University, a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution, provides a small campus environment for students who come primarily from economically disadvantaged areas of rural West Texas.

Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide scholarship support to 15 students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, or Computer Science. This project will provide a comprehensive program of academic advising, peer assisted learning support, academic coaching, leadership development, career preparation, and access to other high impact practices.

This set of supports is designed to increase students' retention, sense of belonging, professional identity, and college and career success. A cornerstone of the project will be an innovative “near peer” mentoring program pairing students in their first two years of study with peer mentors in their third and fourth years of study, and those in their third and fourth years with peer mentors who are recent McMurry University alumni. Another key facet is leadership development through service projects.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project leverages an array of student support programs, including “near peer” mentoring; peer assisted learning for attrition hot spots; engagement in experiential learning through research and/or professional internships; a first-year seminar focused on STEM identity and career exploration; and STEM fun days and service projects.

Collectively, these support programs are intended to foster a sense of belonging and professional identity that in turn will increase resilience and persistence. Predicted outcomes are an increase in freshman to sophomore retention to 75%, an increase in 4-year graduation rates to 60%, and a minimum of 90% of graduating seniors securing employment in a STEM career or admission into graduate or professional schools within one year of graduation.

Broader impacts include: potential expansion and institutionalization of the “near peer” mentoring program for all McMurry STEM students; enhancement of pedagogical competencies of McMurry STEM faculty aimed at better supporting first-generation and other historically excluded students; and expansion of servant leadership opportunities and STEM engagement opportunities across the McMurry campus. Formative and summative evaluation will include collecting data related to retention rates, graduation rates, and post-graduation behavior as well as surveys on the effectiveness of activities on sense of identity and belonging.

Successful and promising elements of the project will be disseminated at state, regional, and national conferences, such as meetings of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) or the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE). 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.