A Scholarship Model for Student Recruitment and Retention in STEM Disciplines.

Abstract A scholarship program of-fers enrichment, support, im-proved professional develop-ment towards employment, and increased graduate opportunities for underrepresented groups. In this paper, it is postulated that the development of a success-ful and competitive scholarship program is dependent on several variables including management leadership in quality sciences, cognitive/non-cognitive selection methods, operations research, active learning, and technical instruction supported by existing university student-support infra-structure. The effectiveness of the program is measured from the student grade point aver-age, student distribution based on their STEM major, and reten-tion towards graduation. This program can be effectively used as a model to develop activities for minorities and women, and for career interventions in areas where these groups have been traditionally low in numbers. Introduction Many programs exist with a primary objec-tive of increasing the number of science and engineering graduates among underrepre-sented groups in engineering (African Ameri-can, Hispanics, Native American) including women, low-income families, and people with disabilities. These programs are influenced by demographic trends that project woman and minorities to make up a substantial part of the population workforce in the United States [1]. In the wake of new millennium, ethnic minorities and women still remain underrepresented in a number of occupations, including those, which might be identified as high-technology areas [2]. Though women comprise half the high school graduates, only a small part of them choose engineering as their career. Men earned the majority of bachelor’s degrees awarded in en-gineering (80%), computer sciences (78%), and physics (79%) [3]. The reasons for this low number of degrees awarded to women include that through policies and practices, educational institutions often ignore the issues unique to women, and fail to address aspects critical to their future. For example, they fail to encourage them in course work and in practices that are necessary in order to enter professional disci-plines [4]. The number of bachelor engineering de-grees awarded in the United States has in-creased in the past decade by 8%, but has reduced compared to the number awarded in 1986 by 12.8% [5]. This increase in the num-ber of engineering graduates was restricted only to certain fields while the others still faced a decline. The engineering disciplines that ac-counted for this increase include aerospace, biomedical, computer, electrical, and petroleum engineering. However, enrollment in several other engineering fields such as chemical, civil, industrial engineering continued to decline [6]. Inspite of the increase in the enrollment in sci-ence and engineering, the graduate student enrollment of US citizens and permanent resi-dents continued to drop [6]. Addressing this common problem, this paper describes how the Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) program at Wright State University (WSU) has proven to be a recruitment and re-tention model in the Science, Technology, En-gineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The primary objectives of the program are: (a) increase recruitment of underrepresented mi-norities in STEM disciplines; (b) focus on aca-demic excellence and preparation of minority and female students entering STEM disciplines; (c) emphasize the competency of students; and (d) enhance diversity in STEM disciplines, where women and minorities are underrepre-sented. The primary goal of this program is to emphasize success by removing artificial bar-riers, rewarding performance, and providing non-threatening environments for females and minorities. This goal is achieved through schol-arship programs, career orientation workshops, participation in co-op and internship programs, and academic and social support.