This project is providing scholarships and support systems to recruit and retain academically talented, economically disadvantaged students from underrepresented classes with a special focus on students of color and first-generation students. The Bradley University STEM Scholars program enrolls high school and community college students from a large, high-needs, urban school district and provides them financial and academic support, enrichment opportunities, and career placement support. This STEM Scholars program is providing $5,000 scholarships per year to 13 incoming freshman and 30 transfer students over a 4-year period. Student retention is supported by a comprehensive program designed to provide students with enhanced science, technology, engineering, and math backgrounds prior to beginning their STEM studies at the university, and offer a variety of academic, social, and career oriented programs, including peer mentoring and tutoring, faculty mentoring, undergraduate research, work-study jobs, and participation in student organizations and cultural activities.
This program is contributing directly to the advancement of knowledge in STEM disciplines while enabling members of underrepresented and financially needy groups to achieve their educational goals. Partnering institutions include members and partners of PeoriaNEXT, a community-wide consortium of which Bradley University is a member. Other members include Caterpillar, National Center for the Agricultural Utilization Research (one of 4 United States Department of Agriculture agencies), and the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria.
