RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS IN CRITICAL ZONE SCIENCE: SMOOTHING THE PIPELINE FOR 2YC STUDENTS INTO GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMS AT 4YCS

The NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program typically serves upper-classmen, who are already committed to careers in science. To spark student interest in the geosciences early in their college career, we have developed the NSF-funded Research Experience for Community College Students in Critical Zone Science (RECCS) program for Colorado students. Community college (2YC) students are often non-traditional students who may be older, come from rural or low-income communities, or be veterans or have minority status. The goal of RECCS is to give these students an authentic research experience and training that allows them to explore environmental or geosciences and gain the confidence to transition to a four-year program (4YC) in the STEM disciplines. With three years under our belt of our NSF-funded REU program, that has included extensive evaluation, we will provide important insights into how best to support these students during the summer and encourage them to continue on with their studies at a 4YC and beyond. We will highlight some of our most successful program elements, including team building, the research environment, career professional development, scientific communication, and we will also share some of our “lessons learned”. To date some of the outcomes of our student researchers include roughly 65% successfully transitioning to a 4YC, with nearly the remainder still at their 2YC, two attending graduate school, several giving poster presentations at scientific conferences and one publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The largest barrier for 2YC students to continue their studies at a 4YC is the high cost of tuition. Recently, we have begun to work with University of Colorado (CU) administrators to try to reduce some of the barriers these students face to continue with their studies at CU.