Scholarships and Mentoring to Advance Retention and Training in Support of 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 Rockhurst University, a private liberal arts university located in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 20 full-time undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, or physics.

First year students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support and transfer students will receive approximately two-years of scholarships. The project aims to increase student success by using a cohort model and leveraging enhanced student support mechanisms. Students will benefit from an extensive network of alumni and industry contacts to help encourage persistence in STEM fields and strengthen their professional network.

In addition, a central component of the project is a faculty and peer mentoring program centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and mental health training.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The objectives of this project are to: 1) recruit and enroll 20 total students into two cohorts, 2) increase student support in these cohorts with a peer and faculty mentoring program, 3) increase network connections with alumni and industry contacts to promote STEM careers, 4) increase 1-year retention and 4-year graduation rates for students in these cohorts, and 5) disseminate knowledge on how the cohort model impacts retention, graduation, and post-graduation placement in STEM workforce or graduate school.

Cohort models have been successfully used in higher education to help students succeed but often are not tailored for low-income students from underrepresented populations at private liberal arts institutions, where the price of tuition is often a significant barrier for low-income students. This program will allow scholars to benefit from an inclusive and supportive campus community which will increase the likelihood of persistence in STEM careers after graduation.

This project will also identify if a faculty and peer mentoring cohort model, combined with other university supports, impacts 1-year retention and 4-year graduation rates for biology, chemistry, and physics scholars. The faculty mentor diversity, equity, inclusion, and mental health training will be assessed to understand if this training, combined with discipline-specific mentoring, can positively impact students' success, and increase their sense of belonging.

The project will be evaluated using surveys and other established measures for both students and faculty mentors. Results of this project will be presented at national meetings and submitted for publication in peer reviewed 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.