The three colleges of Seattle Community College (SCC) District VI are awarding 170 scholarships of up to $6,000 each over a 5-year period to talented, low-income students pursuing careers or transfer associate degrees in astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, computer science, engineering, environmental sciences, geology, mathematics, nanotechnology, oceanography, physics and sustainable agriculture. This ONSIGHT Collaborative Scholarship Project began at Seattle Central Community College, and therefore the new collaboration between the Seattle Central, Seattle North, and Seattle South Community College campuses relies on and is building upon established and successful scholarship procedures, student support infrastructures, undergraduate research programs, the previous experience of the management team on Central's project, and the powerful collaboration of three Science and Mathematics Divisions across the district. The Seattle Community Colleges serve highly diverse populations. Central alone serves the largest number of underrepresented students of any of the 34 colleges in Washington State. Recent records show that over one-half of the potential ONSIGHT Collaborative scholarship appplicant pool consists of women, over 30% are first generation, over 43% are students of color and over a third reside in households in the lowest two socio-economic quintiles. Thus the recruitment and selection processes, and the mentoring and support service structures established for the ONSIGHT Collaborative Scholarship project are designed to support the significant participation and success of scholars typically underrepresented in STEM fields. The project's evaluation plan is contributing to the base of S-STEM knowledge regarding student support interventions and their correlated impacts; dissemination of success and lessons learned to local and national audiences is providing information for replication. The project is transformative due to the necessary collaboration between the three Science and Mathematics Divisions: deans, faculty, student support service personnel and scholars are meeting and working together frequently to assure student success. Situated within one of the great science and technology centers of the nation, the Seattle Community College District finds that there is no better focus to exercise the benefits of collaboration than by working together in support of its up-and-coming STEM students.
