An official website of the United States government
The National Science Foundation approved a program in 2016 to investigate the influence of adult mentor networks on low socio-economic students seeking collegiate degrees in STEM fields. Students who expressed a strong desire for an engineering major at a state-supported land grant institution and were denied admission into engineering, and then admitted into Exploratory Studies, were given scholarships and focused mentoring by faculty and staff. The Rising Scholars program had a very specific pathway of activities through a collegiate career, designed to introduce the student to a variety of potential adult mentors. Students were enrolled in several experiential activities, placing them in proximity with multiple faculty, graduate students, and staff members. Support network members were tracked by researchers throughout the study, and a special index was developed which identifies professional contact. Results indicated that students applying the mentor recruitment methodology actively enhanced their support networks and finished college with a strong web of professional support.
more »
« less
A Comparison of the Academic Performance of Rising Scholars with Other Student Demographic Groupings before and during the COVID Pandemic
The Purdue University Rising Scholars program was established in 2016 by a NSF grant designed to examine the effect of adult mentor support networks on student performance. The first students began classes in the fall of 2017, and their performance and many aspects of the program have been reported in the literature. Unfortunately, during this same time period, the COVID-19 pandemic moved across the globe and dramatically changed collegiate education. The effects of the pandemic in education will be felt for some time following the eventual demise of the virus. Because of this NSF grant period, the research team was uniquely positioned with matched pair sets of matriculating students from the Rising Scholars program, engineering, and exploratory studies. This paper will compare the performance of these students and the general student population for GPA and retention between the pre-COVID period (< spring of 2020) and the COVID period (spring 2020 onward). It is commonly perceived among collegiate instructors that student performance has suffered during the pandemic. The Rising Scholar demographic has the potential to have increased adverse effects from the pandemic disruption, but they also have an established adult mentor support network. The researchers have looked at differential performance outcomes between the various groups and exposed a tendency toward diminished performance with thinner networked students. Sample sizes were too small for the evaluation of any meaningful statistical tests.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1644143
- PAR ID:
- 10358072
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2022 ASABE Annual International Meeting
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The National Science Foundation established the Rising Scholars program to demonstrate how the cultivation of mentor support networks could promote the matriculation and retention of qualified low socio-economic students into STEM fields. Rising Scholars students are those individuals with low socio-economic status that have distinguished themselves academically in secondary education and wish to move into a collegiate STEM major. The overarching goal of this NSF S-STEM effort was to determine if professional-based mentors could help an individual make-up for a lack of ‘institutional’ collegiate knowledge within their own family and friends. Under this program, twenty-one incoming exploratory studies students, across three years, who had expressed an interest in engineering were provided with a defined path of social and professional activities in college, where they engaged in numerous experiential activities, including on-campus research and internships. The overall goal of this defined path was to introduce the students to potential mentors within technical fields, who might later assist the students with their own careers. Rising Scholars students were sent to the Minority Engineering Program’s Academic Boot Camp, prior to entering school as freshmen, and they were scheduled for annual seminars and continuing social events to provide group cohesiveness. While many elements of keeping the students on the designated path where they could co-mingle with potential mentors was difficult, finding paid work experience for the students was particularly challenging. COVID-19 negatively affected the ability of these students to find professional employment, but some of students truly excelled in collegiate Professional Practice. Anecdotal experiences and data from employment-based activity of the Rising Scholars program are presented. Some students from the program remain actively working toward completing college, but to-date graduation and entry-level employment data are provided.more » « less
-
In 2016, an NSF S-STEM grant was awarded to explore the connection between student support networks and success within collegiate STEM field majors. For this on-going diversity study, promising students with low socio-economic status were selected from a pool of low socio-economic status applicants that were denied admission straight into engineering, but given admission into the university. These Rising Scholars were invited into a scholarship program based upon the quality of their support networks and their readiness for higher education. Local research on institutional efficacy supported the concept that student success and satisfaction with the collegiate experience were directly related to how welcome and comfortable the student felt within their chosen academic field. The students need to feel that they are part of a larger community that values them and their contributions. Advocacy organizations and smaller engineering schools, like Agricultural & Biological Engineering, do a good job creating this welcoming climate for their students. The Rising Scholar program was designed to create a local, familial cultural reference point for the students and utilize existing successful elements of the local university environment. Multiple experiential elements, professional communication exercises, and social opportunities were provided to enhance student skills and contact networks. The students were provided numerous chances for interaction and were continually reminded about networking strategies. Initial retention and GPA data support the conclusion that these students can be very successful in a highly ranked, R1 institution when provided with sufficient mentoring and means to reduce the financial burden of attendance.more » « less
-
The Rising Scholars program was established by the National Science Foundation to promote the matriculation and retention of qualified low socio-economic students into STEM fields through the cultivation of their mentor support networks. Rising Scholars students were provided with a scholarship and had a defined path of activities in college designed to enhance their professional mentoring network. They were prearranged to participate in a pre-freshman academic bootcamp, an on-going faculty-directed research project, a self-directed research project, and an internship. Students attended seminars and produced written reflections of their various individual experiences on the path to a professional career. Three cadres of 21 students total, who had expressed a previous interest in engineering, were admitted to a general studies program and provided intensive guidance and an active social group. The Rising Scholars students were successful overall at remaining in a STEM discipline, but their path through college also intersected with the COVID pandemic. These results indicated that strongly supported students faired the social disruption better than their less well supported colleagues. Academic results for the Rising Scholars students against their matched pair grouping for graduation rate and GPA will be presented. Several students interviewed after graduation all professed that they believe they would not have graduated from Purdue and probably would not have attended in the first place. In turn, they would not have their current positions without the Rising Scholars Program.more » « less
-
This paper is a work-in-progress, focused on the utilization of the Rising Scholars Program to introduce minority students to experiential engineering projects within Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Traditional admissions processes at top institutions predominately utilize standardized test scores when comparing student applications. The equity of these high-stakes tests most severely affects students of low socioeconomic status (SES). The NSF-sponsored program, Rising Scholars: Web of Support used as an Indicator of Success in Engineering, was created to investigate whether alternative admission criteria could be used to identify low-SES applicants who would excel within STEM fields in higher education, even if they did not have the superior standardized testing metrics preferred by current admissions processes. The students underwent a pre-selection process to determine their eligibility. The overall experience was designed to enhance student connectivity within the collegiate environment. The Gallup-Purdue Index (2014) found that feeling supported and having learning experiences that illustrated learned principles produced a graduate who would be engaged in their work. The Rising Scholar (RS) program utilized a prescribed path through college designed to enhance these features. These positive experiences are exemplified by the Purdue Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) department and how they approach the overall educational process. Faculty are motivated in their teaching, research, and extension efforts by a focus on meeting the world’s grand challenges, in which most college students are also highly interested. The Rising Scholars Program utilized the Vertically Integrated Projects model to introduce their students to real-life projects at the freshman and sophomore level, which could potentially be continued on into graduate school. Several of the RS students have worked with the Purdue ABE Hog Cooling Pad Project and these students have conducted research, prototyping, and design modifications on the pad. They have participated in five experimental bench tests of the design and four consecutive live animal studies related to the pad performance. Within these experiments, Rising Scholars students were able to work on real-life projects, with real-world impact. The preliminary hypothesis question is: Are future graduates of the Rising Scholars Program more likely to thrive in all areas of well-being due to their collegiate experiences?more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.13031/aim.202200205
