Intellectual Merit: The purpose of this project is to award up to 20 scholarships each year for 4 years to recruit, retain, and graduate academically talented and financially needy undergraduate students majoring in Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Mathematics. The objectives of the S-STEM project are to (a) increase enrollment in the targeted STEM fields from underrepresented groups (women, ethnic minorities and first-generation students); (b) increase retention to degree achievement by providing improved educational opportunities in the targeted STEM fields so that the S-STEM scholars can achieve their best academic performance; (c) support these scholars through degree completion with a variety of structured institutional support programs, high quality enrichment activities, and partnering with potential employers to facilitate student career placement in the STEM workforce; and (d) prepare well-educated skilled STEM graduates and increase the number of STEM graduates who enter and remain in the workforce in a STEM-related professional job or enter graduate school in a STEM discipline.
Broader Impact: The University is located in a region with a sizable low-income economically disadvantaged African-American inner-city population. The S-STEM leadership team is recruiting students from the local and regional high schools and from low-income families residing in both urban and rural areas, including the distressed counties as designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The specific support services that are available for these S-STEM scholars to ensure that they excel academically are: an S-STEM scholar orientation program, peer tutoring, faculty mentoring, professional development, and S-STEM living and learning community (which provides an opportunity for S-STEM scholars to live together). S-STEM scholars also have the opportunity to acquire valuable research skills by taking part in faculty-mentored research projects in their respective STEM disciplines, leading to presentations at professional conferences.
