Broadening Participation, Fostering Cultural Wealth, and Increasing Student Success Through an Undergraduate Research Training Program

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project will support undergraduate students with significant financial need in biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston. Specifically, the project will engage cohorts of students in a two-semester capstone course that lays the foundation for future research experiences. Participating students will develop critical scientific and workforce skills in a welcoming environment and explore opportunities in STEM graduate education and the STEM workforce. After the capstone course, students will be placed in research labs with engaged, responsive mentors that can help them experience first-hand how science is created and communicated. The emphasis on students with financial need is critical, as lower-income individuals often face challenges that can exclude them from research opportunities and other experiences, making the project’s effort important to the larger goal of harnessing the full spectrum of talent across the nation. The primary goals of this project are to: i) increase STEM preparation, self-efficacy, and identity through a developmental training course sequence; ii) nurture students’ cultural wealth by facilitating lab placements where they can conduct research with experienced and responsive mentors; and iii) facilitate the transition to STEM careers or post-graduate study. The mixed methods project research plan will connect measures of student engagement, sense of belonging in STEM, self-efficacy, and persistence with key components of the project. Project evaluation will further explore the implementation of the project’s components and identify how the project helps participants overcome new or known barriers to their success. Findings will be shared through faculty and student presentations at professional meetings, scholarly publications, and student-centered outreach events and popular media. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. 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.