2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

There is a national need for a well-educated and diverse workforce of STEM professionals (scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians). One key part of building this workforce is supporting the retention and graduation of STEM students with strong academic potential and high financial need. The National Science Foundation Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) program “seeks to increase the number of academically promising low-income students who graduate with a S-STEM eligible degree and contribute to the American innovation economy with their STEM knowledge.” As higher education institutions continue to grapple with declines in traditional enrollments, we chose to focus our work on a critical subset of STEM students with strong potential and high financial need: those who seek to transfer from a community college and continue their education at a 4-year university. With the support of a collaborative NSF S-STEM planning grant involving a community college and a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI), we assessed the needs and experiences of students at the community college poised to transfer and those at the PUI who recently successfully transferred. We studied the literature and found that supporting the aspirational, navigational, and social capital wealth of this student population bolsters their potential for success. Based on both the needs assessment and best practices related to capital wealth enhancement, we developed programming to engage STEM students at the community college poised to transfer and those at the PUI who recently successfully transferred. This poster aims to 1) highlight tools used to effectively capture student voices and experiences, 2) share evidence-based recommendations for programming to support transfer students in navigating a pathway to a STEM career or advanced degree, and 3) feature critical lessons learned about the roles that key personnel (STEM teaching faculty, college/university administration, and student support staff) play in the success of cross-institutional collaborations.