Influence of S-STEM funding: Challenges and successes

Abstract

This article presents a summary of the four years of activities of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) that includes descriptions of one hour course used, expectations required from scholarship recipients (scholars) and their responses to a survey. The S-STEM program at our institution provided scholarships for financially eligible students in Biochemistry (BIOCH), Biology(BIOL), Chemistry (CHEM), Computer Information System (CIS), Computer Science (CS), Electronics Engineering Technology (EET), and Mathematics (MATH) for the past four academic years (Fall-2009 through Spring-2013). Principal investigators (PIs) activities included proactive recruitment and advertising; offering a one-credit course every fall semester that provided students with skills in job interviewing; teamwork; learning about the future job market and some business skills, plus active mentoring and tutoring. As shown in Table 1, a total of 115 scholarships were given to for the duration of the award. Some students received scholarships for multiple years. The main goal of the S-STEM project was to enable academically talented students, with financial need as defined by the federal government, to either enter a STEM discipline (in order to complete their bachelor degree and then enter the workforce) or to pursue a graduate degree. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.