Louis Stokes B2B Alliance: New Mexico Bridge to the Baccalaureate (NMB2B)

Community colleges in the United States have long played an important role in providing affordable access and opportunities for millions of students whose educational goals included transferring to four-year institutions to complete baccalaureate degrees. The success of a transfer pathway is dependent upon state and individual college policies, procedures, and pathways. The New Mexico Bridge to the Baccalaureate Alliance is a collaborative partnership of eight community colleges, led by NMSU Doña Ana Community College, sharing the common goal of significantly increasing the transfer of community college students in STEM by enhancing a culture of research. The Alliance partner colleges are located across the state serving a largely rural population including Central New Mexico (Albuquerque), Luna Community College (Las Vegas), New Mexico State University – Alamogordo, New Mexico State University – Grants Community College, San Juan Community College (Farmington), Santa Fe Community College, and University of New Mexico-Valencia. This Alliance will formalize articulation and transfer strategies between institutions, increasing communication, mentoring, and research opportunities for community college faculty and students by developing a formal partnership with six of the four-year institutions comprising the New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation STEM Pathways and Research Alliance. The collective impact of the Alliance institutions' focus on the transfer and graduation of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines contributes to an understanding of developing successful pathways to STEM degree completion at two-year institutions. The goals of the program are (1) to increase the number of Community College URM students participating in mentoring and enrollment in STEM courses that provide undergraduate research experiences; (2) Achieve a significant increase in the transfer rate of URM undergraduate students pursuing degrees in STEM;(3) Conduct a rigorous external evaluation to deepen the understanding of URM student success in New Mexico Community College STEM courses and degree programs; (4) Use Project Evaluation outcomes and findings to inform the project and support data-driven adjustments to activities, dissemination strategies, and sustainability planning. The project aims to implement four project activities selected for proven outcomes for students and their designation as “high-impact” practices. The analysis of project outcomes is anticipated to contribute to a greater understanding of four primary questions: 1) Does peer mentoring influence STEM community college student transfer? 2) Does participation in course-based research experiences influence transfer? 3) Does participation in faculty professional development opportunities increase curriculum revision efforts? 4) What impact does student participation in professional development have on transfer? Providing support for faculty and students, the project represents new directions for shifting the culture of STEM education and the role of transfer in a community college. New templates for sustainable teaching improvement and pathway developments that emerge addressing critical transfer points will be broadly disseminated to state, national, and international audiences through publications, presentations, and online venues. 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.