Increasing Recruitment and Retention of Talented, Low-income Students in Science through Community Building, Holistic Advising, and Professional Development

This project will contribute to meeting the national need for well-educated scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Alverno College. Alverno is a four-year undergraduate women's college and Hispanic-Serving Institution located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 30 unique full-time students pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, human biology, biomedical science, chemistry, environmental science, or integrated natural science.

The cohort will be launched with existing sophomore, junior, and senior students who will receive scholarships averaging $12,000 per year until graduation. In addition to scholarships, the project will offer S-STEM scholars a range of activities and support to promote retention and success, including cohort-building events, professional development, academic support, mentoring, and opportunities for undergraduate research and leadership experiences.

To expand the pool of applicants, the project will partner with community organizations that serve low-income students. The addition of dual STEM faculty mentoring with wider campus advising acknowledges that scholars need additional support both within and outside their discipline. The creation of in-class academic peer tutoring will ease the burden on scholars to find time for academic tutoring outside of class, thus increasing accessible academic support and course pass rates.

Together, these activities will increase participants' STEM identity and belonging, increase the retention and graduation rates of scholars, and broaden participation of women in well-paid STEM careers. The project will advance knowledge by examining and reporting on the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary, mixed-age model of cohort formation on student belonging, persistence, and success.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Three objectives guide the work of the project leaders. First, is to increase the number of talented low-income women enrolled in Alverno STEM programs.

Second, is to increase the 1-year retention and 4-year graduation rates for scholars through community building, advising, and professional development experiences in a multidisciplinary, mixed-age cohort. Third, is to increase the proportion of highly prepared women entering STEM graduate programs and careers after attaining their degrees. The Alverno student body is diverse, with 67% of all undergraduates identifying as women of color, 54% as Pell Grant-eligible, and 68% as first-generation college students.

The project will examine contributing factors to STEM identity and sense of belonging to a STEM community. Dissemination will focus on how to create supportive, empowering cohorts that serve students from both small and large majors an encourage students to apply their disciplinary knowledge and collaboratively address problems relevant to their communities.

The project will build and strengthen relationships with community partners to provide educational opportunities and expand professional development for women and women of color to promote entry into high-paying STEM jobs and improve the socioeconomic standing of our community. 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.