Achieving Upward Socio-Economic Mobility

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 Montgomery College, a a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution and one of the most diverse community colleges in the nation. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 90 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate degrees in 1) Computer Science, 2) Cybersecurity, 3) Engineering, and 4) Networking & Wireless Technologies. Students will receive an average scholarship of $12,000 per year, in most cases for two years. The project will couple an array of academic, peer, and professional supports with these scholarships. In addition, the project will be designed as a cohort model (to provide peer support), match students with academic mentors (for academic support) and provide stipends for internships and research experiences (for professional experience and networking). The project will contribute to an understanding of how to increase graduation, transfer, and employment rates in STEM degree paths for low-income individuals. Such understanding will help to create a successful model that will reinforce college to career pathways that is scalable to other colleges and universities. The outcomes of this project will be significant in expanding knowledge of ways to provide effective and lasting financial and programmatic support for students who have not participated in STEM learning in large numbers. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will test evidence-based and promising practices at one of the nation’s most diverse community colleges, furthering an understanding of which interventions help low-income students to succeed and persist in their degree programs, while continuing to build a career pipeline to STEM careers for low-income and underrepresented individuals. The expected outcomes of the project are: (a) improved retention rates; (b) improved associate degree graduation completion rates; (c) improved STEM transfer rates by demographic attributes and their intersectionality, i.e., ethnicity, race, gender, age, first-generation student status; (d) positive satisfaction with the project's initiatives among participants; and (e) improved STEM employment rates and salaries and/or expressed intention to pursue STEM careers. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented 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.