Providing Academic, Co-curricular and Scholarship Supports for Talented Students Pursuing Associate's, Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in the Physical Sciences.

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at University of Oregon, Umpqua Community College, Lane Community College and Central Oregon Community College. Over its six-year duration, S-STEM scholarships will support 64 unique individuals pursuing degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, and physics during their final year at community college, as transfer students attaining a bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon, and then through the Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program, a master’s degree program at University of Oregon that includes a 9-month paid internship.

This project will examine the impacts of faculty and near-peer mentorship, cohort-building activities at all levels, and internship programs on the development of students’ perception of their future selves as they progress along pathways to industrial research careers. The project develops a model that establishes and enhances a cross-institutional culture of student mentorship with the aim of increasing retention of low-income students in science while providing a trajectory for alumni to enter high-wage careers.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Project research builds upon models used in K-12 settings and centers on the longitudinal study of relationships between students’ imagining of their futures and their academic engagement and persistence.

Through surveys, short journal assignments, and responses to open-ended questions, this research will examine students' choices as they navigate educational transitions and evaluate how mentorship and internship support systems shape their development as future scientists. This project has the potential to advance understanding of effective tools and frameworks to support retention of low socioeconomic students in STEM.

Project results will be disseminated to other institutions, state officials, and industry leaders through journal articles, talks, and a video that captures student experiences and highlights student outcomes. 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.