Data Analytics Training and Scientific Computing Initiative

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 the University of North Carolina (UNC) Asheville. As North Carolina's designated public liberal arts and sciences university, UNC Asheville serves a high fraction of low-income and first-generation college students.

Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 31 unique full-time students pursuing bachelor's degrees in mathematics, physics, or computer science. The Data Analytics Training and Scientific Computing Initiative (DATASCI) will provide comprehensive support to scholars to prepare them for engaging careers in STEM. In addition to scholarships, the project will offer on-campus paid positions as peer mentors and tutors, along with opportunities for paid undergraduate research experiences and internships.

Scholars will benefit from a robust peer mentoring framework. They will enroll together in a first-year seminar on Topics in Data Science and an upper-level humanities course within UNC Asheville's liberal arts core. Additionally, the project will feature various extracurricular activities such as biweekly research and professional development seminars, conference travel, and networking events.

The project will address gender and racial/ethnic disparities within STEM majors through a comprehensive recruitment plan targeting both first-year and transfer applicants, ensuring a diverse applicant pool for the scholarships. The project will enhance workforce diversity by increasing the number of professionals who serve as mentors and role models for future low-income students.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Five specific aims guide the project's leaders. First, is to recruit and enroll 18 first-year S-STEM scholars and an additional 13 transfer S-STEM scholars.

Second, is to retain 90% of S-STEM scholars from the first to second year. Third, is to graduate S-STEM scholars in four years with degrees in one of the supported majors. Fourth, is to place S-STEM scholars on a track to a career in their field of study or a STEM graduate program within six months of graduation.

Fifth, is to apply a knowledge generation plan to explore how the project interventions - specifically, opportunities for research and the use of a new suite of social and professional online modules - affect persistence and student sense of belonging. The external evaluation will track the effectiveness of the project activities and their impact on retention, graduation rates, career choices, and sense of belonging.

The results of this project will be shared through conference presentations, peer-reviewed journals, and the project webpage to inform the broader STEM education community on how to best support all STEM 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.