Hi Donna! Thank you for your comment. Yes, focusing on transfer students has been incredibly insightful.

Hi Scott, thank you for your questions! I will do my best to answer questions regarding pre-transfer students. Our Miami Dade College collaborators and sub-awardees on this project could provide more detail if needed, and I’d be happy to put you in contact with them.

Awards for pre-transfer students are merit-based, requiring a minimum GPA of 2.5, so recipients have completed at least one term. They must also have at least 2 terms remaining to graduate. Recruitment occurs through print and digital flyers as well as student email listservs.

The application process for MDC pre-transfer students includes an application form and a brief (no more than 2 pages, 12pt double-spaced) essay describing career goals and transition to a four-year institution, so intent to transfer is established. Students are specifically asked where they’d like to transfer to and why. MDC awards 50 students per year who have declared a major in STEM (Health Science majors are not eligible).

As for future research experience, about 20% of scholarship recipients (pre- and post-transfer at MDC and UF, respectively) in any given year receive summer research stipends through the Florida Pathways S-STEM program (excluding summer 2020). However, we know that several students are gaining research experiences through other resources via term surveys that we give to our S-STEM students. We understand the value and impact of research experiences and experiential learning in general, which was a major motivation for including in this project.

We are beginning to take a closer look at the data we have collected from students who have completed summer research through this program (we have collected tracking data and our program evaluator has conducted surveys and focus groups with each summer cohort). We are very interested to see the impact of research experience on student success and scientific identity. Also, in receiving the financial support of an academic scholarship to pursue STEM education, do students feel more enabled and/or eager to pursue scientific research? I think the two, scholarship AND research opportunities, are complementary and so very much contribute to a student’s success in STEM.

Thank you for your response, Alexandria. I very much look forward to seeing what your group learns about how this program empowers its participants.

Hello Alexandria, Jennifer and Eric! Wonderful program, excellent video presentation and, as Jeff notes above - encouraging outcomes already! Kudos. Jeff asks a lot of great questions here, as does Bhaskar below. I look forward to learning more from your responses when you have time and then to dig deeper. Thanks in advance!

Great questions thank you, Jeff! The online-hybrid track has greatly increased the accessibility of our microbiology major. Without this track, we would not have the diversity of ‘nontraditional’ students in our program to study some of these issues. In fact, it was because the award rate to our online-hybrid students was so low that we were alerted to full-time enrollment being a significant barrier to these students in receiving the scholarship.

You can read more details about the publication referenced in the video here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09549-7

We observed that part-time/hybrid students graduated in a similar amount of time and similar (trending slightly better) overall GPAs than their on-campus transfer student peers. Through thematic analysis of student text responses, full-time enrollment is just not possible for some students. Many of these students work full or nearly full-time, have dependents and just have very different life situations compared to the ‘traditional’ 18-23 year old college student, so of course their educational experience would be quite different. Furthermore, the expectation of full-time enrollment can be a hindrance to students’ educational experience; a transfer student said, “I have to enroll full time for my scholarships to apply but it makes classes extremely difficult for me and I believe I would have a better educational experience if I were able to do part-time.” Overall, students are well aware of the benefits and disadvantages of enrolling full/part-time and that is a judgment call that institutional policies need to be more sensitive to. I think, in the past, part-time enrollment was often associated with lack of engagement/commitment to their education and hence decreased chance of success, but that just really isn’t the case with these students.

As for research experiences, yes we see that It is very valuable for students. We know that at least 20% of students receiving this scholarship are also gaining research experience provided by this program, but a lot of our students are getting research experiences not directly funded by this program. We haven’t looked specifically at the effect of research experience on graduation rate/time. I imagine it would have a positive effect, but I am not sure that would be the best outcome. Most students are highly motivated to graduate and think the scholarship does a great deal in increasing the graduation rate/time. We hold a research symposium for our students at the end of the summer and ask students what they’ve learned personally in addition to scientifically, and as you can see in the clips in our video, students gain increased sense of self and confidence in pursuing science as a career. Therefore, I think the research experience does more to empower students to look beyond graduation and increase their scientific identity.