The Computer Science as a Career (CSAC) Scholarship Program

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 Texas A&M University (Commerce) and two community colleges in northeast Texas (Collin College and Dallas College). Over its 5-year duration, this project, the Computer Science as a Career (CSAC) Scholarship Program, will provide 179 scholarships to students who are pursuing degrees in Computer Science.

The goal of this project is to increase the recruitment, retention, transfer, and graduation of academically talented students with demonstrated financial needs from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds. This goal will be accomplished by providing co-curricular activities and programs that recruit students to computing and related fields, increase the rate of transfer from local community colleges to universities, and improve the retention and graduation rates of computing students.

This program will contribute to the pool of career ready professionals capable of supporting a globally competitive technical workforce.

The project will encourage students to pursue and complete computing degrees and improve computational thinking skills through many existing high-quality, evidence-based program elements such as summer camps, workshops, and student mentoring programs. The project team will conduct a mixed methods research study to examine the effects of the project objectives and explore how CSAC participants in computing programs, particularly women and students from underrepresented groups, develop and sustain computing identities and persist within these fields.

This research study will utilize a phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences and computing identity development of CSAC participants. The research will focus on the computing identity development process, capturing key elements related to competence, performance, and recognition that may contribute to either the challenges to and/or the success of participants in CSAC.

The results of this research will lead to a better understanding of how to improve computing education for students from underrepresented populations and how to more effectively engage with prospective students. 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.