"START"ING AND STAYING IN STEM USING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

The STEM Academic Research & Training (START) program at Wake Technical Community College, Raleigh, North Carolina is a National Science Foundation-funded (DUE #2133600) faculty-mentored undergraduate research experience which offers support to both students and faculty mentors. The START program is designed to engage first- and second-year community college students in a STEM research community, improve their success in transferring to bachelor’s degree programs, and encourage long-term persistence in STEM education and careers. In the last three years, START has offered 160 experiences, serving 102 unique students. The faculty-mentored research within the program includes geoscience, astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, math, physics, and science communication.

The START program consists of three main components: undergraduate research, principles in research training (PRT) modules, and a communication requirement. STARTs faculty-driven initiative pairs our geoscience students with either Wake Tech geology faculty or those geoscience faculty partnered with us at North Carolina State University (NCSU) to conduct research. By engaging in this research experience students learn from a variety of scientific and real-world experiences. These are skills that directly help expose students to various STEM careers in a low-stakes environment. To help students develop the skills and knowledge about the STEM profession and research, PRT modules were developed. The PRT modules are unique to our program, targeting students early in their scientific career and creates an inclusive and supportive environment for these students as they begin to learn research culture and training in core Responsible and Ethical Conduct in Research (RECR) topics. At the end of the semester, each student shares their research at our college-wide poster showcase or in-house publication; some students additionally present their work at regional conferences. Through funding by the NSF, the START program has been able to compensate the students and mentors as well as conduct a random control trial to evaluate programmatic impacts. Preliminary data demonstrates gains in student confidence in research, an increase in persistence and credits earned, and an increased sense of belonging in STEM fields.