HSI Pilot Project: STEM Undergraduate, Retention, Graduation, and Engagement (SURGE)

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 Pilot Project aims to transform how STEM is delivered at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and change the STEM culture. Despite the abundance of STEM literature on Hispanic students, their persistence is alarmingly low. An internal self-assessment prepared by the SURGE team identified four STEM deficiencies, along with four institutional strengths.

Based on this assessment, the team proposes three SURGE strategies that leverage institutional strengths. The team recognizes the need for institutional change to improve outcomes. As a result, SURGE will implement transformational and reorganizational changes that include 1) a dedicated area conducive to STEM learning, 2) academic support programs, 3) gateway courses that have been revised to include evidence-based pedagogies and practices, 4) an advisor network of faculty, staff, and peers, 5) paid research opportunities, 6) workshops on “STEM awareness”, 7) peer tutors, and 8) virtual learning programs.

Through SURGE, students at FDU will experience a STEM environment more conducive to learning. The data will benefit urban institutions with similar student demographics, faculty teaching loads, and resources.

SURGE will 1) launch a STEM Academic Center, 2) provide faculty with evidence-based, pedagogical, and cultural awareness workshops, and 3) implement research initiatives for STEM majors. These objectives will address three research questions: 1) How does each facet of SURGE improve Hispanic STEM students’ learning, retention, graduation, desire to attend graduate school, and interest in a STEM career? 2) Which activities are best aligned with increasing diversity in STEM and foundational elements required to build and sustain institutional capacity at FDU?

And 3) Do non-cognitive and cultural barrier workshops improve Hispanic STEM students’ relationship with their faculty advisors and “STEM awareness”? Student interviews, experiences, surveys, and focus groups will be used to construct an evolving data-driven model which identifies limitations, and inefficiencies in SURGE. The team will ensure all data is thoroughly analyzed and used to contribute new knowledge on which high-impact activities 1) build institutional capacity to support STEM majors, 2) generate evidence to support program success and replicability, and 3) transform FDU through institutionalization of successful program components.

SURGE will develop the capacity to impact 500 students through STEM workshops, award stipends to 46 STEM majors, and provide 30 STEM faculty with evidence-based and cultural barrier workshops. SURGE will improve the persistence of STEM majors through STEM engagement, and these students who are positively impacted by SURGE will disseminate “STEM awareness” to their peers.

This “domino effect” design of SURGE is deliberate and is intended to have a lasting impact on the STEM culture at FDU. This data will benefit urban institutions with similar student demographics, faculty teaching loads, and resources. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

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.