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1. Success and retention model for biology and computer science majors in Two-year

   Ovueraye, Oberhiri Loretta (April 2019, Southeastern biology)

   STEM-Mia (“my STEM”) is a National Science Foundation funded project that provides scholarships and supports to academically talented, low-income STEM students at MDC InterAmerican Campus. Over a five-year period, the NSF - S-STEM funds will support 45 MDC students with scholarships and wrap around services toward preparing them for Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering (STEM) careers, which are in high-demand and critical to building a competitive workforce that will help grow America’s economy. The grant project will target two primary populations – biology and computer science majors. This presentation will discuss the impact of embedding faculty mentoring, discipline immersions, self-analysis, financial support, toward fostering and shaping student perceptions of their personal agency and empowering them to achieve their STEM-related academic and professional goals by helping them connect with the sources of their STEM self-efficacy and identity. What we are accomplishing in MDC serves as a model for two-year colleges seeking to incorporate curricular changes focused on success and retention in biology and computer science majors for populations who are underrepresented in STEM fields in general. 

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2. Board 317: Institutional Practices to Close the Equity Gap

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46896  

   Cline, EC; Dillon, Heather; Sesko, Amanda; Nahmani, Marc; Kmail, Zaher; Dinglasan-Panlilio, Joyce; Lee, Seung-Jin; Cilli-Turner, Emily; Björling, Elin (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   The S-STEM supported program “Achieving Change in our Communities for Equity and Student Success” (ACCESS) in STEM started at the University of Washington Tacoma in 2018 and has supported 108 students over 6 cohorts. University of Washington Tacoma has been designated an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution (AANAPISI) due to our high proportion of racial minority and first generation college students. The program is multidisciplinary across STEM majors including Mathematics, Environmental Science, Biomedical Sciences, Information Technology, Computer Science and Systems, Computer Engineering and Systems, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering, with Computer Science, IT and Engineering representing 65% of ACCESS scholars to date. Program scholars receive full scholarships for their first two years, and partial scholarships for their third and fourth years. We provide a summer bridge precalculus or research experience course, and project-based Introduction to Engineering or Introduction to Research courses in students’ first year. Individual faculty mentoring, an on-campus STEM living learning community,and quarterly Success in STEM seminar courses help scholars form a cohesive community through group mentoring, to promote a sense of belonging, identity, and empowerment in the STEM community. Our S-STEM program is distinctive in focusing on pre-STEM majors in their first and second years on campus to facilitate the entry into STEM majors, and we provide mentor training for ~30-40 faculty in teaching and mentoring diverse student populations, thus impacting all students in our majors. Our goal was to evaluate how retention and academic success of our program scholars was impacted by the program, and whether this program helps to close equity gaps for students who identify as low socioeconomic status, underrepresented minorities, women or non-binary, or first generation in college . We also evaluated the impact of the program for students before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. We compared our program scholars to a comparison group of students who met eligibility requirements but did not participate in the program. Overall, program scholars had higher first and second year retention, and significantly higher GPAs, particularly for individuals belonging to groups that are historically underrepresented in STEM. Retention was markedly higher for program scholars during the pandemic, suggesting that the program may have been particularly impactful for students as they endured the emotional and financial stresses of the pandemic. 

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3. A Collective Impact Model Towards Increasing STEM Major Student Retention

   Martinez, Ortiz A.; Novoa, Clara M.; Sriraman, Vedaraman (January 2020, Journal of college academic support programs)

   This article presents the research findings of a multidisciplinary team􏰀s collective research effort at one university over a five-year period as funded by the National Science Foundation􏰀s 􏰁mproving 􏰂ndergraduate 􏰃TE􏰄 Education (IUSE) program. A collaborative learning and retention action research effort at a large Hispanic Serving Institution is analyzed using mixed methods to document the power of collective impact as the foundation for a learning support model for students historically underrepresented majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) academic programs. The actions of the team of researchers are presented to describe the 􏰅ising 􏰃tars Collective 􏰁mpact model and the impacts achieved. This is a model that aligns objectives, intervention efforts, and reports collective results. The long-term goals of the Rising 􏰃tars Collective 􏰁mpact multiple programs managed by the funded program team included the following: (a) to improve the campus sense of community for students historically under-represented in STEM, (b) to establish innovative and robust STEM education research-based practices to support critical skill attainment for students, and (c) to support faculty understanding of the funds of knowledge of diverse students. The positive student retention and success impacts of this research effort are measured through quantitative statistical analysis of the changes in second-year STEM undergraduate student retention rates and representation rates of women, Hispanics, and African American STEM majors. 

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4. Approaches for Efficiently Identifying and Characterizing Student Need Assessments in Two-Year Colleges

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--55452  

   Krupczak, John; Brown, David; Chan_Hilton, Amy (June 2025, ASEE Conferences)

   This paper describes an approach that can be used by faculty and administrators to efficiently develop program-level student support plans to increase retention and completion in STEM disciplines. These recommendations were developed as part of a National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop intended to help two-year college faculty and administrators prepare proposals for the National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program. S-STEM scholarship proposals are expected to be built on a foundation of deep needs analyses specific to the targeted population of students in STEM disciplines. Based on needs assessment, programs can then focus on implementing appropriate interventions that will be most effective in improving the retention and completion of their students. Guidelines for streamlining the acquisition and organization of critical elements of student needs analyses can be useful for two-year college faculty and administrators to develop NSF S-STEM proposals and any other initiatives they may pursue to improve student success at their institutions. Our approach recognizes that needs analysis benefits from three levels of data: institutional data, program-level data, and student-level data. Institutional-level data includes retention and completion data as well as results of institutional-level surveys of current students or alumni and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Program-level data includes retention and completion data at the program level that may show significant differences from institutional results. In addition, program data should include course-level grades and failure rates, student GPA correlated with student program year, and student demographic data if available. The program data can help identify attrition points at the program level. Student data forms a third level that can clarify and focus student needs analyses. One aspect of student-level data is personal attributes associated with academic and career success in STEM fields. Examples include a growth mindset, stem identity, a sense of belonging, and academic self-efficacy. The validated surveys that exist to characterize these attributes are outlined in the paper. These surveys can be used at the program level to identify both baseline data and critical needs. In parallel with surveys, the creation of a student need archetype using techniques from the NSF I-Corps for Learning (I-Corps L) model can be used to elicit another dimension of challenges faced by students. The I-Corps for Learning model emphasizes the benefit of unstructured one-on-one informal interviews to elicit unscripted data from students to test assumptions and uncover opportunities for impact. The paper provides step-by-step guidelines for efficient implementation of I-Corps for Learning student needs discovery methods. In summary, even with external grant funding such as NSF S-STEM funds, student support initiatives must allocate available funds strategically to obtain the most impact. Collection of data at institutional, program, and student levels can facilitate the synthesis of a student-need archetype that supports faculty and administrative decision-makers. This paper aims to provide practical guidelines to two-year college faculty and administrators for creating a compelling student needs assessment and characterization of institutional context. 

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5. Board 207: ACCESS in STEM: An S-STEM Project Supporting Economically Disadvantaged STEM-Interested Students in Their First Two Years

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42618  

   Cline, Erica; Abraham, Menaka; Alaei, Sarah; Dillon, Heather; Dinglasan-Panlilio, Joyce; Heller, Jutta; Kmail, Zaher; Lee, Seung-Jin; Ma, Eva; Nahmani, Marc; et al (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   Achieving Change in our Communities for Equity and Student Success (ACCESS) in STEM at the University of Washington Tacoma started as a Track 1 S-STEM program in 2018 and has supported 69 students to date. This year we received Track 2 funding and welcomed our fifth cohort to campus, with funding to support ~32 additional students through 2026. University of Washington Tacoma is an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution (AANAPISI), and we serve a high proportion of racial minority and first generation college students. Our ACCESS scholars are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics, Environmental Science, Biomedical Sciences, Information Technology, Computer Science and Systems, Computer Engineering and Systems, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering, with Computer Science and Engineering representing over 60% of ACCESS scholars to date. First-time college students and first-year transfer students receive full scholarships for their first two years, and partial scholarships for their third and fourth years. The project includes an optional Early Fall Math course to enhance entry into STEM majors, and participants are able to engage in a Research Experience or project-based Introduction to Engineering course in their first year. Coupled with individual faculty mentoring and an on-campus STEM living learning community, the quarterly Success in STEM seminar course helps scholars form a cohesive community through group mentoring, as well as develop a sense of belonging, identity, and empowerment to transform the culture of STEM. This program is distinguished by its focus on pre-STEM majors in their first and second years on campus, and includes mentor training for ~30-40 faculty in teaching and mentoring diverse student populations, thus impacting all students in our majors. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of a program that focuses on the first two years of college and provides financial support, courses to introduce students to research and project-based engineering, and intensive mentoring in increasing retention and academic success for Computer Science and Engineering (CS+E) students, and whether this program helps to close equity gaps for CS+E students who are low socioeconomic status (SES), underrepresented minorities (URMs), female, and/or first generation in college (First Gen) students. We compared our student scholars to a comparison group of students who met eligibility requirements but did not participate in the program. Program scholars had higher first and second year retention, and had significantly higher GPAs. The pandemic resulted in significant social, emotional, and economic stresses for our program scholars, which may have heightened the impact of the ACCESS in STEM program. 

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