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Vemitra White, Sarah Lee, Litany Lineberry, Danielle Grimes, Jessica Ivy 

The persistence and attrition of underrepresented minority (URM) students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) continues to remain a steadfast problem in education and the workforce. Research has shown that educators, administrators, and policy makers all play a vital role in shaping the future generation of STEM education, programs and the workforce, however, much of the research is deficient in providing URM student perceptions on how key factors such as student engagement, financial support, higher education preparation and institutional environment all impact their persistence in the STEM pipeline. This study employs qualitative research methods, semi-structured interviews and casual conversations to gain insight on common trends for the persistence of four (2 males, 2 females) URM students that were enrolled in a 2012 Summer Bridge Program at Mississippi State University (MSU), a predominately large white institution (PWI). Within this study, emphasis will be placed on the engineering branch of STEM. The research found that small diverse organizations such as NSBE and IMAGE along with financial support in the form of scholarships and alumni waivers, and pre-freshmen summer engineering programs such as Summer Bridge played a major role in URM student persistence in engineering disciplines. 

Robotics is an innovative way of intertwining the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through robotics, students become competent and confident in abstract thinking, problem solving, teamwork, goal-setting, and leadership. Established in 1998, BEST Robotics Inc., a non-profit volunteer-based organization and network with approximately 45 hubs across the United States provides students, regardless of socioeconomic status from public, private and home school groups and organizations the opportunity to explore the engineering design process via the design, development and testing of robots that can perform specific tasks on game fields. As a regional hub in BEST, Mississippi BEST (MSBEST) Robotics used surveys to evaluate the impact and outcomes of BEST Robotics on student performance and perceptions towards earning STEM degrees post involvement in a regional BEST Robotics Competition. MSBEST served approximately 250 middle and high school students dispersed into 24 teams. As a result of participation in MSBEST, students enhanced their self-efficacies, became more familiar and comfortable with STEM concepts through the engineering design process, worked in teams to compete in exhilarating competitions which served as great performance assessments, gained transferrable skills in programming, marketing, technical writing, design-to-implementation and failure analysis, and developed increased interest to pursue degrees in STEM.