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1. BOARD # 380: Innovative and Meaningful Mentoring to Enhance Retention, Success, and Engagement in STEM, an NSF S-STEM project

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--55753  

   Hein, Emilie; Hough, Rick (June 2025, ASEE Conferences)

   Innovative and Meaningful Mentoring to Enhance Retention, Success, and Engagement (IMMERSE) in STEM supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low- income students with demonstrated financial need at Skyline College, a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution situated in Silicon Valley, a hub of STEM innovation with many high-demand jobs. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund 90 scholarships to at least 30 students who are advancing toward an associate degree or transfer to a four-year university to earn a degree in Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics. IMMERSE in STEM is now in its second year and has supported 25 scholars, including 4 who have transferred to a 4-year university. All students receive up to three years of support. In addition to scholarships, the project incorporates a transformative approach to mentoring, and innovative supports intended to address financial and academic barriers. All participating students engage in a comprehensive set of evidence-based co-curricular services designed to support their persistence, completion, and transfer. Faculty mentors are trained on innovative and effective approaches to student retention and success, such as the implementation of ePortfolios. The overall goal of this project is to increase the STEM degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are three specific aims: 1) leverage existing high-impact, evidence-based processes already implemented on campus (such as ePortfolios and undergraduate research opportunities); 2) implement a cohesive multi-layer mentorship program to increase retention, student success, and graduation of scholars; 3) expand industry partnerships in association with workforce development programs to support the scholars’ academic and career opportunities with mentoring and internships. The high cost of attendance in the San Francisco Bay Area leads to high unmet financial needs, and leads students to seek part-time or full-time employment while they are in college. By combining financial assistance with specific practices, such as multi-tiered mentoring, ePortfolio adoption or participation in co-curricular activities, we have observed the impact on the retention and success rates of underrepresented minorities in STEM. This work is supported by the NSF S-STEM program under award number 2221696. 

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2. Recruiting and Retaining Low-Income Engineering Students Across Four Institutions During a Pandemic: Progress and Lessons Learned from a Track 3 S-STEM Grant

   Castles, R.; Venters, C.; and Goodman, C (June 2022, 2022 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition)

   In January 2020 East Carolina University (ECU) in partnership with Lenoir Community College (LCC), Pitt Community College (PCC), and Wayne Community College (WCC) was awarded an S-STEM Track 3 Grant (Grant number: 1930497). The purpose of this grant was to support low-income students at each partner institution, to research best practices in recruiting and retaining low-income students at both universities and community colleges, and to research how such programs influence the transfer outcomes from two-year to four-year schools. This grant provides scholarship support for two cohorts of students, one starting their engineering studies in Fall 2020 and the other starting their engineering studies in Fall 2021. Each cohort was to be comprised of 40 students including 20 students at ECU and 20 students divided among the three partnering community colleges. In addition to supporting student scholarships, this grant supported the establishment of new student support mechanisms and enhancement of existing support systems on each campus. This project involved the creation of a faculty mentoring program, designing a summer bridge program, establishing a textbook lending library, and enhancing activities for students in a living-learning community, expansion of university tutoring initiatives to allow access for community college students, and promoting a new peer mentoring initiative. The program emphasizes career opportunities including promoting on-campus career fairs, promoting internship and co-op opportunities, and bringing in guest speakers from various industry partners. A goal of the program was to allow community college students to build relationships with university students and faculty so they can more easily assimilate into the student body at the university upon transfer. This paper presents the challenges presented to the project in the first year and the pivoting that occurred due the pandemic. Data is presented regarding recruitment of scholars in both cohorts and retention of scholars from year 1 to year 2. 

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3. Why Do Students Leave? An Investigation Into Why Well-Supported Students Leave a First-Year Engineering Program

   Morris, Melissa; Hensel, Robin; Dygert, Joseph (January 2019, ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   This research paper examines retaining traditionally underrepresented minorities (URM) in STEM fields. The retention of URM students in STEM fields is a current area of focus for engineering education research. After an extensive literature review and examination of best practices in retaining the targeted group, a cohort-based, professional development program with a summer bridge component was developed at a large land grant institution in the Mid-Atlantic region. One programmatic goal was to increase retention of underrepresented students in the engineering college which, ultimately, is expected to increase diversity in the engineering workforce. The program has a strong focus on cohort building, teamwork, mentorship, and developing an engineering identity. Students participate in a week-long summer bridge component prior to the start of their first semester. During their first year, students take a class as a cohort each semester, participate in an industrial site visit, and interact with faculty mentors. Since 2016 the program has been funded by a National Science Foundation S-STEM grant, which provides scholarships to eligible program participants. Scholarships start at $4,500 during year one, and are renewable for up to five years, with an incremental increase of $1000 annually for years one through four. Even with the professional development program providing support and scholarships alleviating the financial burden of higher education, students are still leaving engineering. The 2016-2017 cohort consisted of five scholarship recipients, of which three remained in engineering as of fall 2018, the beginning of their third year. The 2017-2018 cohort consisted of seven scholarship recipients, of which five remained in engineering as of fall 2018, their second year. While the numbers of this scholarship group are small, their retention rate is alarmingly below the engineering college retention rate. Why? This paper presents the results of additional investigations of the overall program cohorts (not only the scholarship recipients) and their non-program peers with the aim of determining predictors of retention in the targeted demographic. Student responses to three survey instruments: GRIT, MSLQ, and LAESE were analyzed to determine why students were leaving engineering, even though the program they participated in was strongly rooted in retention based literature. Student responses on program exit surveys were also analyzed to determine non-programmatic elements that may cause students to leave engineering. Results of this research is presented along with “lessons learned” and suggested actions to increase retention among the targeted population. 

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4. Educating the Next Generation of Cybersecurity Experts

   Katerina Goseva-Popstojanova, West Virginia; Robin A.M. Hensel, West Virginia (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   The overall goal of the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) S-STEM funded "Attracting and Cultivating Cybersecurity Experts and Scholars through Scholarships" (ACCESS) program is to increase Cybersecurity-related STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, persistence, graduation, and career pathways of these students to improve the education of future STEM workers. Specifically, ACCESS aims to contribute towards addressing the tremendous governmental and industry need for highly skilled cybersecurity experts. Program objectives include: (1) increasing annual enrollment of students in the B.S. in Computer and Information Sciences programs with specialization in Cybersecurity; (2) enhancing curricular and extra-curricular student support services and activities for students; (3) strengthening the partnerships with computer and information technology employers; and (4) investigating the impact of the curricular and co-curricular activities on student success. While significant research has been done relative to student success, retention, and persistence to graduation in STEM fields, cybersecurity is a new field of study and factors affecting student recruitment, academic success, retention, persistence to graduation within this field are not known. In year 1, students were recruited, applications were evaluated, and scholarships were awarded to nine academically talented students, beginning fall 2020. Of these students, four are female (one is from an underrepresented minority population) and five are male (three are from underrepresented minority populations). The students engage in a set of co-curriculum activities, including participation in: outreach activities; technical and career development seminars; a cybersecurity-focused student organization; and potentially, cybersecurity undergraduate research and summer internship opportunities. The paper and poster describe the background of the ACCESS program, recruitment and selection of ACCESS scholarship recipients, project activities, and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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5. Perspectives from an Intervention Model to Improve Retention and Success Among Low-income Hispanic Engineering Students

   Jimenez, M; Guillemard, L; Santiago, A; Suarez, O.M.; Bartolomei, S; Santiago, N; Quintero, P; Lopez, C; Cardona, N; Valentin, A. (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Improving the level of success of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines has been a prevailing concern for higher education institutions for many years. To address this challenge, a pilot initiative has been implemented with engineering students at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, a recognized Hispanic-serving institution. Over the past four years, the Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS) has brought in an innovative intervention model that combines elements from socio-cognitive career theories and departure studies to impact students' success. PEARLS has established a comprehensive range of tools and services, including mentorship, professional readiness training, research opportunities, scholarships, and peer mentor activities. These efforts have led to impressive outcomes, including a significant increase in retention and persistence rates, increased graduation rates having quad-fold those observed in the general student population, and an impressive record of engagements in industry, research, and leadership experiences. This paper discusses the program structure and outcomes from five perspectives that include background experiences, the structure of provided services, the results of their execution, the elements of knowledge derived from its application, and the challenges experienced throughout its implementation. 

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