West Texas A&M University's (WTAMU) Connecting Community College Transfers for STEM Success Times Two (C3X2) project provides at least eighteen scholarships yearly to community college transfer students majoring in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). C3X2's goal is to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of students completing degrees in all STEM fields by providing academic, social, and financial support.
C3X2 recruits STEM community college (CC) transfers to WTAMU through personal contact advertisements, scholarship assistance and outreach to scholars from Amarillo College's S-STEM program (DUE-1059696), encouraging them to continue their STEM education at WTAMU.
C3X2 increases STEM CC transfers' academic achievement by integrating scholars into the WTAMU STEM community. Scholars attend the university's new Transfer Orientation and during their first semester participate in a STEM transfer seminar course, addressing "transfer shock." Quality faculty-student and student-student relationships are developed through faculty advising and peer mentoring. Monthly seminars and social activities provide opportunities for Industry-student mentoring.
C3X2 partners with six regional CCs with diverse student bodies in a region with a rapidly growing Hispanic population. The diversity of C3X2 leaders provides role models for all students and equips them to lead the C3X2 research efforts targeting CC transfer student retention and graduation in a rural, low-income, first-generation population. Since most WTAMU graduates stay in the region, increasing the diversity of STEM graduates also increases the diversity of the region's STEM workforce.