The project is leveraging a long-standing commitment of the university to provide upward social mobility to low-income students. To this end, the project is awarding scholarships to approximately nineteen unique individuals thereby enabling one advanced undergraduate, nine entering freshmen, six students transferring from 2-year schools, and 3 entering graduate students, to complete either a bachelor's or doctor of philosophy degree in chemistry within four (or two for the transfer students) years of matriculating to Duquesne.
Intellectual Merit: The project is augmenting existing, high quality student-support services with a novel mentoring plan that engages undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty, both in their traditional academic endeavors but also in the development of skills that will lead to valuable STEM workforce personnel. The project is enabling student success in timely completion of degrees through cohort formation that addresses the challenges of course work. The professional development activities are reinforcing essential skills such as time management, prioritization, critical thinking, writing like a scientist, scientific speaking, advanced instrumentation, and leadership.
Broader Impacts: This successful program is documenting how research universities can integrate scholarship support across all levels of their educational enterprise while ensuring financially-challenged students, at any level, are able to pursue a quality higher education degree. The project is also cementing relationships between the university, local groups that aid in recruiting underserved student populations, and the local industry in which many graduates have found and will continue to find satisfying STEM careers that are also beneficial to society.
