National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) grant provides scholarships to high achieving financially needy students. The number and size of awards vary based on the availability of funds and scope and capacity of the projects. Each individual award for Track 2 usually does not exceed $2,500,000 total for a maximum duration of 6 years. Professors Urmi Duttagupta (PI, Mathematics), Diana Samaroo (Chemistry), Viviana Acquaviva (Physics), Nadia Kennedy (Mathematics), and Armando Solis (Biological Sciences) successfully secured SEER: Supporting, Engaging, Empowering, and Retaining New Scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, NSF S-STEM grant (Award DUE#1930437; $999,625.00) in 2019.

This grant provides academic institutions with funds for student scholarships to encourage and enable academically talented students demonstrating financial need to enter the STEM workforce or STEM graduate school following completion of an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degree in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Because retention and graduation rates in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics reveal a profound underrepresentation of women, this grant will place a heavy emphasis on enrolling greater numbers of female students in these programs and in providing evidence-validated interventions to support their retention, graduation, and workforce entry. SEER: Supporting, Engaging, Empowering, and Retaining New Scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematicsbuilds upon intensive analysis of institutional data on retention and graduation in the programs targeted in this S-STEM project and will implement a comprehensive set of academic and social interventions such as and Peer-Led Team Learning and other cohort-strengthening high impact practices. Interested students can learn more about the grant here.

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at CUNY New York City College of Technology (City Tech), a Hispanic Serving Institution. With the goal of expanding the STEM degree pipeline, this project aims to improve retention and graduation in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective support activities, including enhanced academic and professional advising, cohort meetings, undergraduate research experiences, graduate school preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. Project personnel will encourage scholarship recipients to develop both learning cohorts with STEM peers and non-academic endeavors such as enrichment and extracurricular activities designed to foster a connection to the community at large. Because City Tech is a minority-serving institution, this project will impact underrepresented students, especially women, in STEM undergraduate and graduate programs as well as the New York City workforce. This project is also expected to develop successful evidence-based interventions in support of this larger workforce aim.