HSI Planning Project: CSUN START

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to enhance the quality of first-year experiences among STEM transfer students by removing cultural and institutional barriers. Two-year institutions are key entry points to higher education for historically underrepresented and underserved groups such as Latinx, low-income, and first-generation college students, particularly in transferring to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) like California State University, Northridge (CSUN) where over half of incoming students are first-time transfers. However, the majority of transfer students who go on to a 4-year institution will experience “cultural mismatch” or “transfer shock” whereby a shift in cultural norms and values aligned with middle-class contexts will lead to reduced academic belonging, performance and persistence, particularly for students in STEM majors. There is an urgent need to identify practices that invite, retain, and support historically underrepresented and underserved STEM transfer students undergoing institutional and cultural transition. If unaddressed, undergraduate research and STEM workforce participation will remain low among the representative yet often overlooked historically underrepresented and underserved STEM transfer student population. The current project aims to (1) redevelop existing STEM workshops into bridging summer, first-year transfer experience lab courses (UNIV 396) and (2) test the effectiveness of culturally responsive lab course modifications relative to control courses in improving student science outcomes and persistence. Results of this project will aid HSIs in identifying customizable program elements best suited for aiding first-year transfer students in their transition to university. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. 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.