Conference Session

Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

Collection

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Authors

Samuel Darko; Gurcan Comert; Jessica Furrer, Benedict College; Andress Carter-Sims, Benedict College; Balaji Iyangar, Benedict College

Tagged Topics

Diversity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

), and HBCUs (Gasmanand Nguyen, 2014, Toldson 2018, and Toldson, 2019) represent a unique venue through which toreach a large population of such students. This research focused on increasing retention rates andimproving academic and career success in the STEM disciplines at an open-enrollment HBCUthrough a hands-on and mentorship-focused research program. We have utilized the “ScientificVillage” model, where students interacted as peers assisting, encouraging, holding each otheraccountable, and interacted with faculty mentors. Incorporating hands-on research furtherstimulated and engaged students to enhance interest in STEM curriculum and careers. This was avoluntary, three-year, mixed-method, hands-on research program that tracked a cohort of