Conference: Pilot Peer Mentoring Program for Principle Investigators in the Scholarships in STEM Program

About This Grant

This conference proposal will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the principal investigators within the Scholarships in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program from institutions all over the country. The management of these large programs can be challenging and time intensive, and the hurdles in terms of recruitment and retention/graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need differs between institutional type and region. The goal of this program is to mentor up to 48 principal investigators (PIs) who are in their 1st or 2nd year of their S-STEM Grant. The mentees will be split up based on institutional type (e.g., private, state, research-heavy, 4-year primarily undergraduate or community college) and region (urban, suburban, rural, EPSCOR, ect.). This will allow the project to achieve two outcomes: First, a wide variety of PIs will be assisted, leading to more successful S-STEM programs in their early years of implementation. Second, surveys will be conducted and focus group data collected to generate broad and widely applicable recommendations for the effective and successful implementation of S-STEM programs. The S-STEM program offers a wealth of knowledge focused on promoting student success. A mentoring program designed for S-STEM principal investigators (PIs) can similarly yield insights by identifying common institutional barriers and recruitment challenges, enabling the testing and tracking of effective solutions. The findings from this initiative could serve as a valuable resource for all S-STEM PIs and assist institutions in developing strategies to enhance the persistence of low-income students in STEM fields. Additionally, this program will provide direct support to newer PIs by minimizing the time spent navigating institutional obstacles, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of recruitment efforts, and helping the PIs articulate their successes and challenges to the NSF in their annual reports. Comparative surveys will be conducted between mentored PIs and those in their second or third year who did not receive mentoring to evaluate the perceived challenges of managing and implementing an S-STEM project, both with and without peer PI mentoring. 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.