2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 213: An Expanded Integrated Achievement and Mentoring (iAM) Program to Promote Access to STEM Professions

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

Overview: The NSF Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) Track 3-funded name-of Program at University (U) is built on the theoretical framework of legitimate peripheral participation with an emphasis on inclusivity, community, and belonging. Through an initial Track 2 award, the Program increased Scholar retention, academic performance, and engagement with student support services relative to peers. The Program is expanding to include 25 majors across eight departments (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Physics, Psychology, and Geology, Environment, and Sustainability Studies) and partnering with local Community College (CC). CC and U are located in a community in which ≥ 93% of high school students are minoritized in the sciences and ≥ 65% are low income. The expanded Program will create a seamless pathway for students from local high schools, through five CC STEM majors (Biology, Computer Science, Engineering Science, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Math) and U, culminating in a STEM BA/BS degree and entry into a STEM profession. It will accomplish these goals by augmenting the original program with components to address challenges specific to CC: a summer research experience, ALEKS for math placement support, joint CC/U advising, and an annual CC/U STEM faculty conference to strengthen curricular ties across our institutions.
Objectives: (1) shorten length of time to earn STEM AS and BA/BS degrees, (2) increase feelings of belonging and identity with CC and U, (3) increase identity and confidence as STEM students and professionals, (4) consistent engagement with student support services (e.g., academic success, career counseling and placement), (5) catalyze interdisciplinary and inter-institutional pedagogical collaborations, (6) identify curricular and co-curricular factors contributing to student success and career entry, (7) institutionalize sustainable, high impact practices, and (8) adapt and develop processes for other institutions to follow. The expanded Program will support 90 unique Scholars. The U Entryway will recruit STEM majors who were academically strong in high school and who initially underperform at U. The CC-U Entryway will recruit local, academically successful high school students. Our goal is to increase Scholar retention, transfer, and graduation rates by 25% relative to peers.
Intellectual Merit: The Program explores a transformative model that integrates existing institutional resources within an evidence-based framework. The model is intentionally adaptable to unique institutional or disciplinary contexts. We will advance knowledge in four broad areas: (1) scholar outcomes, (2) institutional impacts, (3) adaptability, transferability, and institutionalization, and (4) theory and practice. We are uniquely positioned to succeed, given resources and the collaborations built via the NSF-funded (STEM)2 Network.

Authors

Dr. Jessica Santangelo Hofstra University
Dr. Lynn A. Albers http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1436-0256 Hofstra University [biography]

Dr. Lynn Albers is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering of the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science at Hofstra University. Her previous academic contribution was as one of the founding five faculty/staff at Campbell University, helping the newly formed School of Engineering grow and establish roots in the community. A proponent of Hands-On Activities in the classroom and during out-of-school time programs, she believes that they complement any teaching style thereby reaching all learning styles. She earned her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University specializing in thermal sciences where her dissertation research spanned three colleges and focused on Engineering Education. Her passions include but are not limited to Engineering Education, Energy Engineering and Conservation, and K-20 STEM Outreach. Prior to matriculating at NCSU, she worked at the North Carolina Solar Center developing a passion for wind and solar energy research while learning renewable energy policy. She combined these passions with K-20 STEM Outreach while a National Science Foundation Fellow with the GK-12 Outreach Program at NCSU where she began Energy Clubs, an out-of-school-time program for third, fourth and fifth graders to introduce them to renewable energy.
Prof. Margaret A Hunter Hofstra University [biography]

Margaret Hunter,Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Engineering at Hofstra University in the Fred DeMatteir School of Engineering and Appplied Science. She has been teaching in the Civil Engineering program for 25 years. Her educational research focuses on broadening the participation in enigineering. This has included both formal and informal learning activites in pre-college, developing a course framework to aid faculty at 2 year institutions to encourage participation by women in STEM and currently involved in methods to improve retention in engineering.
Kristin Weingartner Hofstra University
Rosebud Elijah Hofstra University
Richard Cohen Nassau Community College
Scott T Lefurgy Hofstra University
Rakhi Agarwal Nassau Community College
Lisa Filippi Hofstra University

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