"Are You STEPped Up for Success" is a cohesive set of programmatic interventions that recruits STEM majors from underrepresented groups (women and minorities) and improves retention of first-year and transfer STEM students through summer bridge experiences, academic support, mentoring, and orientation programs. The program has two cornerstone recruitment strategies: a recruitment program targeted at high school girls interested in engineering careers and a Saturday Science program for high school juniors and seniors in local school districts characterized by large minority populations, historic poverty, and low college attendance. The retention activities are directed at both entering and transfer students whose skill levels in mathematics and writing do not reach college level including: a summer bridge program in writing, mathematics and chemistry for incoming first-year students; academic year mentoring programs utilizing trained peer mentors and teaching assistants to continue support as students enter college level courses; and creation of four learning communities: pre-calculus, general chemistry , women, and transfer students including non-residential students. This program provides a model for a cohesive academic and social support system by which academically disadvantaged young people will feel comfortable with, and be prepared for, academic and intellectual exploration in the STEM fields.
RU STEPed UP for Success was designed to increase the number of students who graduate with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors by increasing the retention rates of students who are particularly at-risk for leaving STEM. These groups include prospective STEM majors with placement into mathematics below the calculus level, underrepresented minority students, women, and transfer students. The program utilized a series of strategies which have been shown to improve retention of first-year students generally and adapted them to support retention of these at-risk groups of students in the STEM disciplines. Each program that formed part of RU STEP targeted a specific group of at-risk entering students who had expressed an interest in a STEM major. These included the following: Achievement in Math and Science (AIMS) was a group of residential and non-residential learning communities for first-year prospective STEM majors who placed into mathematics courses at the precalculus level and below. Students were enrolled in the same mathematics and writing classes in addition to taking a special first year seminar, Exploring Careers in the Sciences, taught by a peer instructor. Students were provided with special tutoring, peer mentors, and special programming to improve their academic skills and interest in STEM careers. Science Success Fast Track was a group of residential and non-residential learning communities for incoming transfer students. These students shared a speical section of the Students in Transition Seminar taught by a faculty member in mathematics or science. Students were provided with tutoring, peer mentors, and special programming to improve their academic skills and interest in STEM careers. Rosalind Franklin House was a living and learning community for first and second year women with placement into calculus. This learning community included peer mentors. a graduate mentor, and special programming. Bridge to Success: a five week residential summer program for incoming first-year students offering college preparation in mathematics, chemistry and writing. During the six years of the project, 379 first-year students participated in the AIMS residential learning communities, 149 in the AIMS non-residential communities, and 179 in the Rosalind Franklin House. Two hundred and sixty-three transfer students participated in the Science Success Fast Track learning communities. The Summer Bridge programs enrolled a total of 433 students; this program was offered jointly with LSAMP for the last three years. The 1535 students who participated in these programs were compared to similar students entering the university in terms of their academic success and retention in a STEM field. Overall, Rosalind Franklin House and the Science Success Fast Track communities had the largest impact on retention in STEM. In both programs, participants graduated with STEM degrees at higher rates than non-participants, and transfer students in Science Success Fast Track tended to declare STEM majors earlier, suggesting that these students become committed and involved in their departments earlier in their academic careers. The students in the AIMS communities were a more diverse group academically, with mathematics placements ranging from intermediate algebra through precalculus. STEM retention varied across the cohorts and mathematics placements, although in general later cohorts showed the greatest gain in STEM retention. This may reflect the increasing levels of academic programming as our strategies were refined and increased during the course of the grant, and suggests that offering a variety of programming within the communities can be important in improving retention for these populations. In general, STEP students with the highest mathematics placements showed the greatest gains in STEM retention relative to the comparison group. Survey and focus group evaluations from all of the learning communities indicated that these learning communities help students adjust to college life, an additional factor in retention. Analyses of the courses taken by students, both participants and non-participants, who left STEM programs suggested additional strategies for the future; although some students drop out of STEM courses in their first year, large numbers of students also drop out of STEM during their second year. This suggests that the positive effects of first-year programs need to be reinforced with targeted programming for second-year students. These programs have overall been successful in increasing the number of STEM graduates at Rutgers University, but more broadly the results of these programs has a number of implications for best strategies for improving STEM retention. Learning communities are an effective strategy for supporting and retaining at-risk groups, most particularly women and transfer students. Transfer students are an increasing population at Rutgers, as at many other universities, and these results suggest that grouping these students into learning communities, either residential or non-residential, can be a significant factor in increasing their likelihood of remaining in STEM fields. The learning communities and related programing developed as a part of this grant provide a model for coordinated programming to support at-risk students, but our results also suggest the importance of continuing supportive programming beyond the first year.
