2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The STEM Academy for Research and Entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff integrates engineering, science, and business disciplines to fast-track the number of STEM graduates who attend graduate school or enter STEM entrepreneurship. In our poster, we will report on the research strand of the project. Guided by the theory of socialization and exposure, our research was scoped under the assumption that activities in which students participate, such as opportunities to engage with role models, would ultimately help them successfully and efficiently progress through their programs and earn a STEM bachelor’s degree. Our research also draws on the Model of Co-Curricular Supports as an organizing framework, which holistically considers the range of different kinds of support that students need to be successful. Applying that model within an HBCU represents a new contextual operationalization. Thus, the purpose of the research is to identify programmatic elements that foster greater success in STEM undergraduate education at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), with a particular focus on interest in graduate school and entrepreneurship. The research goals are to identify the programmatic elements that support the following latent variables: (1) students’ self-confidence in their STEM-related skills (i.e., math and science skills; professional and interpersonal skills; problem-solving skills); (2) students’ entrepreneurial intents; (3) students’ self-efficacy pertaining to a potential future in graduate school; and (4) students’ career goals.

Our research to date has focused on administering a survey instrument within the STEM programs at UAPB in two different years. This instrument is comprised of scales and items that were developed in prior STEM-focused projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Scales have established reliabilities, and items have undergone extensive piloting and testing in that prior work. Our poster will present findings from these two different cohorts and identify preliminary relationships between programmatic supports and outcomes.

Program funding the work: HBCU-UP

Acknowledgements: This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (EES-2106350). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.