Community College Partnerships to Provide STEM Summer Research Opportunities

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the number of summer undergraduate research and internship opportunities available to students that attend a Hispanic Serving two-year college. This will be accomplished through a multi-pronged approach that leverages an existing partnership with a local 4-year university. The project combines research experiences with exposure to diverse STEM research labs, academic coaching focused on obtaining a research position, engagement in a STEM learning community, and the development of professional skills. This approach is intended to promote increased rates of student success including retention in STEM majors, degree completion, and transfer to a university setting. The overarching goal of this project is to remove barriers, thereby allowing two-year college students to participate in STEM internships and/or research experiences. The four project objectives are to increase the following: 1) the number of students with research experience, 2) student confidence levels, 3) transfer rates in STEM, and 4) the number of students considering graduate school as a future option. Each cohort of students participates in a series of workshops over the fall and spring semesters to prepare to seek, apply, and participate in a summer research experience or internship program. Workshops will be designed to develop professional skills, research lab skills and field-based research skills. Assessment efforts focus on capturing changes in student's attitudes and graduate program interest and will be measured using quantitative and qualitative data from pre and post program evaluations. Project outcomes will be disseminated at STEM education conferences and made available to similar two-year colleges in the region. Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate the impact of and advance knowledge about emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. This project is partially 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.