Urban STEM Collaboratory
Building STEM Identity and Student Success through Academic, Financial, Social, and Career Support
As the cost of a university education continues to rise, there has been much discussion of the debt load college students take on over the course of their academic career. Many students, particularly at urban campuses, must work to support themselves and their families and to afford tuition, books, and other costs of college attendance. The need to work while in school poses challenges for many students including delayed graduation and disengagement from campus life, particularly when their jobs are unrelated to their major. These challenges can result in even more issues for students in engineering programs, where the course load is heavy, classes are challenging, and a strong support network on campus is often needed for academic success. Such difficulties can also impede development of STEM/engineering identity, which is crucial to retention and success in these majors.
The Urban STEM Collaboratory – Building STEM Identity and Student Success through Academic, Financial, Social, and Career Support project is a collaborative effort led by the University of Memphis (UofM) with partners University of Colorado Denver, and Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis that is designed to address these challenges and to enhance academic outcomes for engineering students at the three urban campuses. The $5M project ($1.7M awarded to the UofM) is funded by the National Science Foundation under its Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S-STEM) program. The project includes scholarship support for academically talented engineering students with financial need as well as numerous programmatic supports, such as stress and time management workshops, networking events, industry panels, and the opportunity to serve as a STEM Ambassador in outreach initiatives with K-12 students. The STEM Ambassador program employs undergraduate students to provide direct support for schools and community organizations that wish to engage K-12 students in meaningful STEM learning activities. The Ambassadors make a positive impact with area students through tutoring, STEM competition coaching, and other support, and they learn essential professional, communication, and leadership skills through their structured training program and experience. They also become part of a community of Ambassadors, with 50+ students typically engaged in the program each year.
Over the last 5 years, 52 undergraduate engineering students have been part of the UofM’s Urban STEM Scholars program, with 20 of these students serving as STEM Ambassadors. Initial results indicate positive outcomes on all fronts. Urban STEM scholars are achieving higher GPAs, earning more academic credits per semester, and are retained at higher rates than engineering students with similar academic backgrounds and financial need who are engaged in Urban STEM. Further, Urban STEM scholars who serve as STEM Ambassadors are retained at higher rates, remain in their original major, and remain on-track to graduation in 4 years at higher rates than scholars who are not involved in the STEM Ambassador program. As the project enters its last year of NSF funding, the research team is finalizing analysis of program data and has multiple manuscripts and additional grant proposals in the works to extend the research effort.
The UofM PI team includes Drs. Stephanie Ivey (civil engineering), Aaron Robinson (electrical and computer engineering), and Craig Stewart (Communications). Provost David Russomanno was the PI of the IUPUI effort prior to joining the UofM this fall.
For more information on this initiative, contact Ivey at ssalyers@memphis.edu.
