The JUMP Scholarship program is supporting students beginning in their sophomore year through a comprehensive set of activities involving financial aid, outreach, recruiting, cohort activities, and mentoring by faculty, student peers, and alumni from industry and government. The objectives of the project are to: (1) enhance the educational opportunities for 30 talented students in mathematics or physics with documented financial need by providing scholarships for each student for up to three years; (2) mentor and support these students through an integrated cohort program to complete their degrees in a timely manner and prepare them to enter the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) workforce or graduate school; (3) expand the overall student support programs in mathematics and physics at the university to benefit all STEM majors; and (4) create a model for educational collaborations between the Mathematics and Physics Departments that can be adopted by other STEM departments at the university and other institutions.
Novel features of the JUMP program include: (1) a focus on great ideas at the intersection of physics and mathematics to motivate cohorts of students to stay in these majors, (2) an advisory committee of successful STEM professionals to mentor the JUMP Scholars toward STEM careers, (3) the use of best practices in Physics Education Research to give JUMP Scholars the latest in active-learning experiences.
Intellectual Merit: The JUMP program is based on joint efforts in mathematics and physics to enhance the educational opportunities and intellectual life for students. The scientific interaction between cohorts of mathematics and physics students provides additional motivation and role modeling for students about the exciting problems in the fields and the relationships to the current body of knowledge. Cohorts of mathematics and physics majors are learning about the important issues and problems in the fields and engaging in intellectual discussions through seminars and special courses. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in the active research areas of faculty.
Broader Impacts: The institution is working to significantly increase STEM interest by undergraduates. Both the Mathematics and Physics Departments have devoted considerable effort in recent years to high school outreach programs, and these efforts have led to more freshmen interested in STEM fields. This project is reaching out to the large pool of talented students currently in non-STEM fields, but with great potential to excel in mathematics and physics. The program is helping to increase the diversity of STEM students, building on (a) the fact that 60% of the students in the College of Arts and Sciences are women and (b) the close connections of the university to several high schools and community colleges with high percentages of minority students.
