Enhancing Career Pathways of Talented Financially Disadvantaged Biology STEM Students Through Scholarships and Inclusive Transformative Academic Experiences

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 Florida International University (FIU). FIU is a public Carnegie R1 Research and Hispanic Serving Institution.

Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to a total of 26 unique full-time students through two cohorts who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological Sciences. First-year students will receive up to eight semesters/ four academic years of scholarship support. To ensure successful student career pathways, the project will use a community of practice model (cohort) and a network of mentorship (senior peers, faculty, and academic advisors), and will integrate funding with evidence-based academic and co-curricular activities to promote student success and competitiveness in the workforce.

Complementary implementations are designed to enhance self-belonging and science identity under an atmosphere of inclusiveness, translating into higher student engagement, academic performance, persistence, and degree completion. The scholars’ academic perspective, ability to comprehend scientific findings, and scientific communication skills, formalized by active engagement in journal clubs, lab courses for undergraduate research experiences, and research internships, will enrich their professional development and contribute to the FIU intellectual environment.

This project aims to ensure that 26 historically marginalized students feel included and valued, and that they belong within their academic communities. In return, these scholars will be able to enter the workforce prepared to bring their diverse experiences and work in diverse teams with the goal of developing new solutions for global concerns related to biological degradation by climate change, biological restoration, pandemic outbreaks, and building the generation of science educators.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project specific aims are: (1) to implement an effective biology curriculum, the Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC), which features: emphasis in critical analyses of primary literature, integration of math skills into experimental biology, and the use of undergraduate learning assistants to enhance the academic and professional training of STEM scholars; (2) to enhance self-belonging and science identity of scholars under an atmosphere of inclusiveness by facilitating small cohort-based learning groups, mentorship networks, and research experiences; (3) to implement novel career development modules during the program’s early years, and generate longitudinal data determining the effect of these implementations on student success; and (4) to enhance core STEM competencies through micro-credential professional training.

A mixed-methods approach will be used for the formative and summative evaluation of the project guided by a logic model. The evaluation team will conduct annual collections of quantitative and qualitative data on the quality, effectiveness, and impacts of project activities. Project findings will be disseminated to the STEM community at science education conferences, and prepared in manuscripts for publication in science education journals.

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.