S-STEM Lessons Learned: Supporting Community College Transfer Pathways and Access to High-Impact Practices during Transfer Transition

Rebekah Dupont; Nancy A. Rodenborg

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: NSF Grantees: S-STEM 4
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35172
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/35172
Download Count: 474

Paper Authors

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Rebekah Dupont Augsburg University orcid.org/0000-0003-4657-8871

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Dr. Rebekah Dupont is Director of STEM Programs at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Dupont’s disciplinary background is in applied mathematics. She is committed to helping STEM students attain academic confidence and financial security by connecting them with resources and helping to remove barriers. Recent projects have focused on broadening participation in STEM through scholarships, professional development, mentoring, as well as connecting students to high impact practices such as undergraduate research and internships. She is particularly interested in the evolving patterns of STEM student pathways including community college transfers and exploring institutional partnership initiatives that provide innovative approaches responsive to student needs.

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Nancy A. Rodenborg Augsburg University

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Dr. Nancy Rodenborg is a Professor of Social Work at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Dr. Rodenborg’s primary research and teaching focus is on institutional diversity and inequality in a global context. She is interested in developing inclusive pedagogy and higher education administrative practices that equitably serve students of all social identities. Her perspective is informed by over ten years of social work experience in child protection service (CPS) and research on disparate outcomes in CPS by race. Recent scholarship has explored prejudice-reduction through intergroup dialogue. In June 2019 Dr. Rodenborg received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Social Workers Minnesota. Her latest article is: Nancy Rodenborg & Adrienne Dessel (2019) Teaching Note—Learning About Segregation and Cultural Competence, Journal of Social Work Education, 55:4, 809-817, DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2019.1619643

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Abstract

While scholarships help reduce the financial burden of higher education, the consensus is that scholarships alone cannot achieve the goal of broadening participation. Developing strategies to support STEM transfer students is key (Packard, 2011, Wang, 2015, and Scott, 2017) as well as engaging students in high-impact practices such as internships and undergraduate research (Kuh, 2008). We share approaches developed in our S-STEM program to support student success and to increase access to research and internship opportunities, particularly during the transfer transition.

At our small, urban, liberal arts institution, 51% of STEM students are Pell-eligible and 35% are underrepresented. Among juniors and seniors, 42% are transfers. A scholarship program for juniors and seniors funded by two NSF S-STEM grants has supported 97 scholars of whom 80 graduated with STEM degrees and 17 are continuing in STEM (100% retention). The University-wide 6-year graduation rate for first-time full-time students (2012 cohort) is 63.5% and the 3-year graduation rate for transfer students (2015 cohort) is 50.0%. The 100% scholar cohort retention rate compares to year-to-year institutional retention rates for junior and senior STEM students of 86% (all junior and senior STEM students), 82% (transfers), and 81% (underrepresented students). Five scholars have been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, of whom two were transfers and two were underrepresented as defined by NSF.

Qualitative research efforts have explored the lived experience of both transfer and non-transfer S-STEM scholars. Coding and analysis of individual, semi-structured, audio-taped and transcribed interviews of scholars and selected support staff and faculty was grounded in conceptual frameworks from social work. Emerging themes include the importance of student relationships with faculty and STEM staff, the influence of prior mentoring experiences, student attitudes toward finances and debt, and the impact of compounding stressors. Through this qualitative research, along with interviews and focus groups with students, faculty, staff and community college partners facilitated by our external evaluator, key strategies have been identified, including an individual development plan (IDP) framework, partnerships with innovative internship and undergraduate research programs, and programming targeted at community college students prior to transfer.

A core goal of our project is to strengthen institutional infrastructure to increase retention, student success, graduation, and transition to a STEM-related graduate or employment opportunity among all STEM students at our institution. Since transfers comprise approximately 50% of our scholar cohort (and our STEM graduates overall), this institutional infrastructure includes our partnerships with community colleges. Relationships with faculty and staff (including those that transcended institutional boundaries) were identified as a key theme in our qualitative research findings. In reflecting on our lessons learned, we consider institutional or local context factors that can support or hinder relationship building and institutional collaboration. Factors include turnover of key staff or project members, process for negotiating resources, locus of sponsored programs offices and local grants culture, and institutional recognition (or lack) of the work involved in relationship-building. From these lessons learned we share ideas on evaluation strategies such as metrics for evaluating collaboration (Frey, et. al, 2006), (Mattessich & Johnson, 2018).

Citation
Format

Dupont, R., & Rodenborg, N. A. (2020, June), S-STEM Lessons Learned: Supporting Community College Transfer Pathways and Access to High-Impact Practices during Transfer Transition Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35172

TY - CPAPER
AB - While scholarships help reduce the financial burden of higher education, the consensus is that scholarships alone cannot achieve the goal of broadening participation. Developing strategies to support STEM transfer students is key (Packard, 2011, Wang, 2015, and Scott, 2017) as well as engaging students in high-impact practices such as internships and undergraduate research (Kuh, 2008). We share approaches developed in our S-STEM program to support student success and to increase access to research and internship opportunities, particularly during the transfer transition.

At our small, urban, liberal arts institution, 51% of STEM students are Pell-eligible and 35% are underrepresented. Among juniors and seniors, 42% are transfers. A scholarship program for juniors and seniors funded by two NSF S-STEM grants has supported 97 scholars of whom 80 graduated with STEM degrees and 17 are continuing in STEM (100% retention). The University-wide 6-year graduation rate for first-time full-time students (2012 cohort) is 63.5% and the 3-year graduation rate for transfer students (2015 cohort) is 50.0%. The 100% scholar cohort retention rate compares to year-to-year institutional retention rates for junior and senior STEM students of 86% (all junior and senior STEM students), 82% (transfers), and 81% (underrepresented students). Five scholars have been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, of whom two were transfers and two were underrepresented as defined by NSF.

Qualitative research efforts have explored the lived experience of both transfer and non-transfer S-STEM scholars. Coding and analysis of individual, semi-structured, audio-taped and transcribed interviews of scholars and selected support staff and faculty was grounded in conceptual frameworks from social work. Emerging themes include the importance of student relationships with faculty and STEM staff, the influence of prior mentoring experiences, student attitudes toward finances and debt, and the impact of compounding stressors. Through this qualitative research, along with interviews and focus groups with students, faculty, staff and community college partners facilitated by our external evaluator, key strategies have been identified, including an individual development plan (IDP) framework, partnerships with innovative internship and undergraduate research programs, and programming targeted at community college students prior to transfer.

A core goal of our project is to strengthen institutional infrastructure to increase retention, student success, graduation, and transition to a STEM-related graduate or employment opportunity among all STEM students at our institution. Since transfers comprise approximately 50% of our scholar cohort (and our STEM graduates overall), this institutional infrastructure includes our partnerships with community colleges. Relationships with faculty and staff (including those that transcended institutional boundaries) were identified as a key theme in our qualitative research findings. In reflecting on our lessons learned, we consider institutional or local context factors that can support or hinder relationship building and institutional collaboration. Factors include turnover of key staff or project members, process for negotiating resources, locus of sponsored programs offices and local grants culture, and institutional recognition (or lack) of the work involved in relationship-building. From these lessons learned we share ideas on evaluation strategies such as metrics for evaluating collaboration (Frey, et. al, 2006), (Mattessich &amp;amp; Johnson, 2018).
AU - Rebekah Dupont
AU - Nancy A. Rodenborg
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - S-STEM Lessons Learned: Supporting Community College Transfer Pathways and Access to High-Impact Practices during Transfer Transition
UR - https://peer.asee.org/35172
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35172
ER -