Paving a transfer pathway for low-income stem students

The National Science Foundation awarded a $200,000 Project Grant to the University of Houston at Victoria under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076). The grant will fund a collaborative planning project between Victoria College and the University of Houston-Victoria to strengthen pathways for low-income STEM students.

Specifically, over the one-year period of performance from October 2022 to September 2023, the universities will investigate mechanisms to better support low-income computing majors as they transfer from Victoria College to complete bachelor's degrees at the University of Houston-Victoria. They will also collect data and prepare a future proposal seeking funding to provide scholarships to such students pursuing degrees in computer science. The goal is to increase degree attainment among low-income, academically talented undergraduates, addressing national workforce needs in STEM fields. Findings may also benefit other higher education institutions serving transfer students from underrepresented groups.

Abstract

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the recruitment, retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at victoria college and the university of houston-victoria. Victoria college (VC) is a public, open-admission community college whose mission is to provide educational opportunities and services for the students and communities IT serves. VC is a designated hispanic serving institution. The university of houston?victoria (UHV), also a hispanic-serving institution, was developed in the 1970S as a university designed to serve upper-division and graduate students, such as those from victoria college, who were seeking to continue their education, and now offers a full four-year academic program. Over its one-year duration, this collaborative planning project aims to strengthen ties between UHV and VC in computing program connection; investigate inter-institution student support mechanisms; and prepare a future national science foundation s-stem grant proposal for an inter-institutional consortium between UHV and VC. Through the collection of data, this project will advance the understanding of best practices to help low-income and under-represented computing major VC students successfully transfer to UHV, complete their bachelor?s degrees, and pursue computing careers or graduate study. The significance of this project to create a smooth matriculating pathway to higher education will also lead to an important future NSF-funded grant project proposal to provide scholarships for these students who are pursuing bachelor?s and graduate degrees in the computer science disciplines. The overall goal of this project is to increase stem degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this proposed collaborative planning grant will help advance knowledge regarding: how to design and establish effective collaborative inter-institutional research and teaching activities to support computing major students with demonstrated unmet financial needs; how to identify the other unmet needs for transfer students pursuing computing majors, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, and how the institution could support them; how to design and develop a robust inter-institutional workforce development program for transfer students to help them to be successful in a future computing career and, at the same time, meet national priority needs. The broad scope of this strong collaboration between UHV and VC will directly affect current and prospective computing major students in these two institutions, including their improved academic achievement, enhanced campus experience, successful transfer to a public university, degree attainment, and future computing career or graduate study. Findings related to transfer student needs will also benefit transfer students in other institutions and regions, as well as researchers and educators in higher education who are interested in improving the degree attainment and career success of low-income and underrepresented transfer students. This project is funded by NSF?s scholarships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income, academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in stem fields. IT also aims to improve the education of future stem workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.