Providing Academic and Financial Support to Facilitate Career Exploration, Retention, Graduation, and Job Placement for Talented, Low-Income Students

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 Stetson University. A total of 24 scholars pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in Applied Math, Aquatic and Marine Biology, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physics will receive scholarships averaging $12,500 per year for up to five years. Scholars will receive faculty mentoring, and the project will build strong scholar cohorts through participation in a summer bridge program, freshman and junior seminar courses, a STEM colloquium, and an exploratory curriculum. Additional activities for scholars include summer research exploration and tutoring support. The overall goal of this Track 2 Scholarships in STEM project is to increase STEM degree completion of academically talented, low-income undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need. There is a significant national need to grow the STEM workforce and nurture key talent that will ensure economic competitiveness and provide domestic leadership across critical sectors. This project directly speaks to this need by supporting STEM student success, which will strengthen the workforce in biotechnology, nanotechnology, data science, and other key areas of need. The project will be assessed by an experienced evaluator that will investigate the effectiveness of the proposed interventions on graduation, retention, and self-efficacy of the S-STEM Scholars compared to a matched group, and the data generated will contribute to the knowledge base regarding effective strategies to support talented, low-income students in STEM. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of academically talented, low-income 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.