About Title III STEM LTS
Sul Ross State University (SRSU)’s LoboTrack to Success in STEM (STEM LTS) project aspires to engage the talent, motivation, energy, and aspirations from within our university community to address the identified national imperative to attract, retain, and graduate increased numbers of Hispanic and low-income students with STEM degrees. The academic, situational, and other under-preparedness factors that delay or distract majorities of Hispanic and low-income students from enrolling, persisting, and graduating in STEM are significant, but not insurmountable. Encouraging undergraduates to pursue STEM is challenging, but not impossible. A well-educated, skilled, technical, and scientifically literate population contributes to the nation’s interests, and cultivating the talents of Hispanic and low-income students is in the best interests of all communities.
Title III Grant Activities
To increase the number and percentage of Hispanic and low-income students completing STEM degrees, SRSU proposes a suite of strategies to increase student engagement and lead to higher rates of student retention. Components to be developed into LoboTrack to increase STEM Success include summer engagement experiences offered before the start of each academic year. Depending on the grade-level, transfer status, college-readiness, and the campus of each student, these experiences will take on various forms throughout the project.
Some of these programs include supporting several STEM summer courses that contain a field component, such as Field Zoology, Geology Field Camp, and Center of Big Bend Studies Archaeological Field School.
To embrace the multiple trajectories through which students may matriculate toward a rewarding career in STEM, Title III STEM LTS will work together with STEM faculty and staff to provide an environment to help retain students currently interested in STEM careers while encouraging the exploration of STEM for all who might be interested.
Together with the Internship Coordinator (IC), Title III grant staff, and STEM faculty and staff, Title III STEM LTS will work to establish a STEM faculty internship program within the Agriculture, Life, and Physical Sciences (ALPS) College. Additionally, grant staff will work to establish partnerships with STEM employers who are interested in facilitating internship opportunities for Sul Ross students as an extension of the STEM Internship Program.
For “gatekeeping” courses (i.e., those identified as presenting an outsized barrier to student success in and/or acceptance into their preferred STEM major field coursework), Supplemental Instructors (SIs) will be recruited from graduate students or high achieving senior-level students who have taken the same course in the past. SIs will audit their assigned class and hold tutoring/study sessions to discuss the key concepts and provide additional support to the enrolled undergraduates. This model has proven effective in increasing pass rates in these types of courses and will therefore lead to increased student retention and completion (Achat-Mendes, Anfuso, Johnson, & Shepler, 2020).
LoboTrack will provide additional mental health resources via online modules with access to virtual counseling, simulations and training to students 24/7 anywhere they have an internet or data connection. Recognizing that university counseling staff have been overwhelmed by a sharp increase in demand since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that students’ mental health presents a significant and ongoing barrier to their success as students and productive citizens, the availability of virtual counseling can provide a critical additional layer of support.