Suffolk County Community College has been leveraging local, state, NSF, and business and industry resources for over a decade to serve a region containing a high density of high-technology research and industry and some of the state’s largest communities of individuals underrepresented in STEM. Our research has focused upon providing authentic student research and presentation opportunities unified through student-identified civic engagement themes as means by which to engage minority and non-traditional students in STEM, and to strengthen the pipeline by bolstering recruitment, retention, graduation, and transfer, towards a goal of meeting local and national STEM workforce needs. Studies by the Council on Undergraduate Research highlight the importance of authentic student research and presentation opportunities, relevant technology, and additional supports beyond scholarships, including mentoring and tutoring as a focal point for STEM academic and career pathways.<br/>Using mixed methods and quantitative descriptive analysis, our current research is examining the impact of these extended student research experiences on their continued progression through their academics and career aspirations. During the last ten (10) years, over 130 students have engaged in summer research experiences in which they have applied classroom and instructional lab theory to practice. Our research methodology focuses on analyzing grades, academic achievements and awards, student employment and Likert scale surveys, along with case study data and longitudinal studies. In addition, we annually survey our faculty mentors who are paired with our STEM students. We have implemented an online research methods course and also adapted the SENCER approach to modify existing science lab courses. SENCER research leads to student empowerment resulting from students identifying a civic problem and solving it through the application of STEM. Our findings indicate that community college student researchers perform better academically than their peers who chose a more traditional path and that success in STEM encourages increased persistence of underrepresented populations in college and beyond to STEM careers or higher STEM education. This presentation will describe the results of our research to date as well as implications for mentoring of our community college research scholars by our NIH IRACDA (Institutional Research and Career Development) post-doctoral fellows upon STEM education<br/>

Partnerships and collaborations that broaden participation and impact community college student outcomes in STEM

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.