Celebrating Heritage: a Campuswide Approach to Supporting Retention of Low-income Science and Technology Students, through Community-focused Research

About This Grant

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 Moravian University. Moravian University is a primarily undergraduate institution which seeks to integrate liberal education, professional programs, and civic engagement. Over its six-year duration, this Track 2 project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, chemistry, physics, computer and data science, environmental science, mathematics, biochemistry, and neuroscience. During their first year, Scholars will take two general education courses designed to retain students in STEM fields by focusing on quantitative skills and real-world issues in the development of a research project focused on a matter of personal importance. In addition to completing this new general education curriculum, scholars will also participate in summer research experiences and present their research at STEM conferences. The connection of the research project with the scholars' personal lives is a distinguishing feature of the project. The project targets not only students but also faculty and infrastructure, seeking to broaden the impact across the campus community. Consequentially, these efforts will enhance support for STEM students and improve students' quantitative and research skills leading to enhanced retention in the major. The overall goal and scope of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of high-achieving, low-income undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are three specific aims of the project: 1) recruit and retain high-achieving STEM students with financial need and prepare students for a reflective life, fulfilling careers, and transformative leadership in a world of change, 2) enhance training and services for faculty working with underserved student populations, and 3) evaluate and improve existing campus programs and services. Attrition from STEM fields by underserved students is a national problem, and this project is intended to generate new knowledge of value to Moravian, comparable universities to Moravian, and to institutions of higher education in general to combat this problem. Among the expected student outcomes are the ability to conduct scientific research addressing real-world issues related to scholars' home communities, feeling confidence in STEM, creation of educational cultures that are welcoming and conducive to all students, and developing better service and supports for students and faculty. The evaluation plan, with both internal and external components, will consider the academic performance, retention and graduation rates, and postgraduate placements of S-STEM scholars; the results of annual surveys and focus groups of scholars, faculty, and staff; and a comparison confidence and retention and graduation rates for scholars and non-scholars at the university. Results of this project will be disseminated internally at Moravian as well as through presentations at professional meetings attended by administrators and faculty at peer institutions and in their disciplinary fields. 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.