Project SERVES (Success, Engagement & Retention of Veterans in Engineering and Science) aims to provide participating student veterans with the skills needed for successful careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Almost half of undergraduate student veterans enroll in a community college after separation from service. However, veterans are considerably under-represented in STEM. In this project, East Los Angeles College (an HSI community college) and the University of California Los Angeles (a research university) will collaborate to offer a coordinated series of classroom performance interventions, internships, and counseling that focus on understanding and meeting veterans' needs. By evaluating effective practices to increase engagement and retention of student veterans, this project has the potential to model a way for other postsecondary institutions to meet the needs of student veterans and their transition into civilian STEM careers.
Project SERVES is designed to broaden participation of veterans in STEM careers. The project will use three assessments, developed by the Center for Community College Student Engagement, to track multiple benchmarks of student engagement. Many veterans possess unique strengths as potential college students, including commitment, strong work ethic, discipline, accountability, and teamwork. Veterans may also have undergone highly specialized technical training in a Military Occupational Specialty. However, veterans face challenges that may be compounded when they encounter traditional STEM education. Research indicates that confidence levels, curriculum overload, STEM faculty teaching styles, and inadequate advising/counseling are responsible for poor retention of STEM students, including veterans. SERVES will pilot and disseminate results of their research, which will assess the effectiveness of STEM student engagement strategies. This program may provide a replicable model for increasing the success of community college?s in recruiting and retaining student veterans in STEM disciplines.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
