This Arizona State University program is to provide 31 $4,000 scholarships per year to academically-talented, financially-disadvantaged upper-division STEM students, especially women and underrepresented minorities. These scholarships, together with well-established infrastructure and student-centered programs, including a community-of-mentors, are to enable participants to stay full-time and to graduate. The program is to help ensure successful transition from upper division work to research, graduate school, academia, and the skilled STEM workforce. This program builds on 11 current and prior projects (850 scholarships to date), which have had a retention rate of 98.3% with over 50% of the graduates going on to graduate school full-time. The project is to continue and expand the services available to students of diverse gender, ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds, clearly supporting the university's commitment to provide a high quality education to all students. It is to also introduce students to exciting new research developments spanning all STEM disciplines and encourage them to earn a technical graduate degree.
