Project Grant 2345273

This $499,999 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) aims to support the City University of New York (CUNY) - John Jay College in implementing and evaluating social psychology interventions to promote first-year STEM persistence and graduation among underrepresented minority students. The 5-year project will: (1) increase first-year STEM students' engagement and retention through empirically-supported social psychological interventions, (2) enhance STEM students' academic preparation via study skills training and mentoring, and (3) expand STEM faculty's expertise in conveying a "growth mindset" to students. The project will utilize a quasi-experimental research design to assess its impacts on objective outcomes like GPA and retention, as well as subjective factors like sense of belonging and STEM identification. The findings are expected to help other Hispanic-Serving Institutions develop effective strategies to support underrepresented STEM students.