The College of Lake County NSF Scholars Program is awarding up to 30 scholarships each year to full-time Engineering Transfer, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering Technology students who have demonstrated both academic potential and financial need. Special emphasis is being given to recruitment from underrepresented groups in these academic areas - including women, minority students, and the disabled. Scholars are being organized into cohorts, which are subsequently supported by activities such as individualized advisement, structured tutorials, mentoring, and a summer orientation.
The College of Lake County (CLC) S-STEM scholar program provides a model for increasing the recruitment and retention rate of students underrepresented in these STEM disciplines. Once fully established and evaluated, many of the mentoring and student support strategies used in this project can be implemented and continued with nominal cost to an institution. With institutions like CLC accounting for almost half of the nation's STEM undergraduates and over half of all minorities in higher education, the project offers the opportunity for broad impact on the STEM pipeline.
