The Lehman College Computer Science and Mathematics Scholarship Program is designed to retain under-represented minorities and women in mathematics and computer-related fields. The program has four key components: funding through scholarships and equipment; advising and mentoring; career planning; and building a community of scholars. Scholarship recipients receive support for professional development and career planning which emphasizes collaboration and communication skills for success in the workplace. The program nurtures an active learning community which includes scholarship recipients who have graduated and entered the workforce.
This project is based on research on the recruiting and retention of under-represented minorities in STEM fields. The project encourages women and members of under-represented groups to complete computer science and mathematics majors and to join the STEM workforce. Data collected by the project will add to the body of literature which describes successful approaches to recruiting and retaining women and minorities in STEM degree programs.
This project, the Computer Science and Mathematics Scholarship Program (CSM) at Lehman College CUNY, helped economically disadvantaged students successfully attain STEM bachelor's degrees by providing support in the form of stipends, advising and mentoring by faculty, and a wide range of workshops on different aspects of scientific careers in academia and industry. The ultimate goal is to increase the number and diversity of STEM educated professionals in order to maintain leadership in scientific/technological areas such as health care, industrial innovation, environmental protection, energy development and national security. Almost all CSM students were from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, namely women, Hispanics and African-Americans, and one of the main benefits of the program was to give students access to information relevant to STEM careers that is generally more freely available to groups that are already well-represented in STEM fields. This access to information proved to be critical, as the more successful CSM students took full advantage of the workshops and mentoring opportunities to graduate well-prepared and with solid STEM career options. The relevant information ranged from very basic aspects of application and interview procedures, to possible academic and professional career paths or specific research topics. All CSM students had unmet financial need, and although the scholarship stipends were helpful in alleviating financial strain, most CSM students were also employed at least part-time during the academic year; and all CSM students lived off campus, as is the norm at Lehman College. Work schedules often presented obstacles for students to participate fully in workshops, study groups, and general information-gathering or networking activities, illustrating difficulties not faced by financially well-supported students at residential colleges. These obstacles were mitigated by flexible and varied scheduling of program activities as much as possible. The CSM program emphasized and supported peer-networking, including having alumni return to share their experiences in industry and/or graduate school. This proved to be particularly beneficial in providing CSM students with up-to-date career insights and inspiration, and directly led to the creation of a student-led chapter of a national professional STEM society at Lehman College, which will provide continuing support open to all students. Some of the CSM program's best students are pursuing STEM teaching careers here in New York City, often with support to attain graduate education degrees. That these bright recent college graduates are motivated to help nurture future generations of STEM students is a positive sign for increasing diversity in STEM field in the long-run, since weak primary/secondary school preparation puts college students majoring in STEM subjects at a severe disadvantage. This disadvantage is especially evident for financially needy students who may feel pressured to complete degree requirements within unreasonable time constraints, and may try to skip fundamental prerequisites which frequently leads them to under-perform in advanced courses, lowers their grade average, and ultimately may increase both time-to-graduation and financial stress. An important aspect of the advising component of the CSM program involved helping students navigate issues related to managing coursework towards successfully satisfying their major requirements. CSM students were assisted in obtaining STEM related internships, which provided professional experience and career opportunities. However, the current norm of employers expecting young prospective employees to take on internships presents special problems for financially needy students: Some CSM students were reluctant to exchange a full-time long-term employment with limited career opportunities for a short-term but potentially more rewarding internship. This same problem discouraged some talented students from seeking participation in the funded summer research experiences that commonly lead to STEM graduate studies. The wide variety of CSM students' personal challenges and successes illustrate the subtleties involved in looking for evidence on how to best increase diversity in STEM fields. Quantitative measures and benchmarks can be difficult to interpret, since for instance some of the best and brightest CSM students ended up graduating successfully into excellent STEM jobs despite having suffered some poor academic semesters. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for students to manage to graduate "unsuccessfully", meaning that they barely satisfy academic requirements for their degree but are not well-prepared for a career. It is also clear that any positive effects of graduating well-prepared teachers will take years to become apparent, and will depend on these young teachers receiving the ongoing support and resources they need to raise the level of STEM education for future generations of students. In many ways the CSM program attempted to recreate parts of the kind of support structures that are in place for more financially stable students attending residential private colleges, and from the multiple ways that economic stress creates obstacles to successfully graduating STEM majors it appears that progress towards this goal is in fact directly linked to generally raising the economic status of under-represented groups.
