Geoscience for Society: Preparing Students for Careers in Climate, Clean Energy, and Resource Management

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 San Jose State University (SJSU). SJSU is a minority-serving institution (MSI), an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).

The project will also engage students from East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD), with a predominantly Hispanic population. Over its 6-year duration, this Track 2 project will fund scholarships to 30 unique full-time SJSU students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Geology and Earth System Science. Six first-year students will receive 4-year scholarships, and 24 transfer students will receive 2-year scholarships over the duration of the program.

Sixty ESUHSD students will be funded to participate in a 10-day geoscience experience program and hundreds of ESUHSD students will be introduced to Earth Science concepts through regional field trips. The project will foster student cohorts through workshops, tutoring, and mentoring to develop students' academic and personal management skills. Research and service-learning projects will increase students' belief in their capabilities, while improving their professional skill set for career readiness, and increasing students' entry into external internships and geoscience jobs.

Student-led service-learning opportunities will engage the broader community with geoscience and sustainability topics.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of high-achieving, low-income undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are two specific aims: 1. Increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates in two geology BS degrees at SJSU through financial aid and program activities and 2.

Develop student networks and career-readiness for entry into societally relevant geoscience jobs. This project will advance understanding of how program activities for BS students, developed in the context of social-cognitive-career theory, can be applied to enhance student outcomes in a low-income, racially diverse education setting and a complex career landscape.

Students will develop portfolios to document their career and personal skills and reflect on their accomplishments to increase their belief in their abilities as geoscientists, to set expectations and goals, and to use when developing applications to geoscience internships and jobs. Student survey results, portfolio content, and academic data will be used to evaluate how financial-social-academic support has impacted academic growth, sense of belonging, resiliency, and student knowledge of and interest in societally relevant geoscience careers.

Quantitative analysis of student GPAs, retention rate, graduation rates, and the proportion of students engaged in research internships and accepted to jobs or continuing education will address the effectiveness of the project activities to develop student networks and career readiness. Results will be disseminated through relevant oral and poster sessions at academic meetings, an academic paper for geoscience education, and presentations and participation in education workshops.

This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of academically talented, low-income 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.