Scholarships, Mentoring, and Research Training: A Chemistry Program at Sam Houston State University

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 Sam Houston State University. A total of 92 scholars pursuing bachelor's degrees in chemistry or forensic chemistry will receive scholarships averaging $6,000 per year for up to five years. Scholars will receive faculty mentoring and the project will build strong scholar cohorts through skill development workshops, a chemistry apprenticeship experience, and career mentoring and exploration activities grounded in social cognitive career theory and career self-management. Additional activities for scholars include conference attendance and undergraduate research. The overall goal of this Track 2 Scholarships in STEM project is to increase STEM degree completion of academically talented, low-income undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need. There is a significant national need to grow the STEM workforce and nurture key talent that will ensure economic competitiveness and provide domestic leadership across critical sectors. This project directly speaks to this need by supporting STEM student success, which will strengthen the workforce in chemistry and forensic chemistry and other key areas of need. The project will be assessed by an experienced external research advisor who will use longitudinal growth models to identify patterns in how scholars' experiences change in response to ongoing support and an external evaluator who will monitor progress and examine how core interventions relate to scholars' self-efficacy, career interests, and academic success. The data generated will contribute to the knowledge base regarding effective strategies to support talented, low-income students in STEM. 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.