With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the "Early Engagement for Entering Freshman Science Majors" project is providing support to low-income students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise to succeed in STEM disciplines at the University of New Orleans. The project is funding 18 scholarships over 5 years for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Computer Sciences, Chemistry, and Biological Sciences. This project will explore learning environments to increase the persistence and graduation rates of STEM majors at a highly diverse institution in an effort to enhance the US STEM workforce pool. The project goals are to improve academic outcomes for STEM students by providing a network of comprehensive support, engagement activities, and internships/research; to increase career and graduate school success through mentoring and career training; and to increase student confidence and preparedness to pursue a career in a scientific field. The unique contribution of this project arises from the testing of a combination of new and old interventions implemented on campus that will allow the research team to infer which work the best for persistence and graduation of students from low-income but academically talented backgrounds.
This project will utilize several strategies to facilitate the success of the student scholars, including: (1) Providing comprehensive guidance by faculty mentors, peer mentors, and existing enrollment support staff; (2) Enrolling students in common sections of student support classes; (3) Providing comprehensive engagement opportunities in a flexible manner, including academic year enrichment activities; (4) Following the progress of each student and compare it with the progress of similar students not in the S-STEM program; and (5) Using the results of internal and external formative and summative evaluation to develop future models for improved student success. By recruiting prospective scholars from Upward Bound participants, local high school students from low income backgrounds, and other qualified entering freshmen from additional locations, this project will increase understanding of how components of this program might have the most effect on student persistence and graduation.
