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This proposal envisions a sustained partnership involving the National Science Foundation, the University of St. Thomas, and high schools in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area to support the development, piloting, evaluation, and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for increasing the number of undergraduate students seeking and completing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at the University of St. Thomas. Project leaders will seek to: 1) Attract new students to our STEM major degree programs, 2) Increase the ethnic diversity of our STEM student body by recruiting among new populations of incoming students, 3) Enhance the retention of students in our STEM programs by improving the quality of those programs in significant ways. Specific programmatic initiatives will include: 1) A new Summer Academy for incoming freshmen designed to prepare students -- especially students of color and women -- to pursue a STEM major. 2) A Partership with inner city high schools designed to identify and recruit students for participation in the Summer Academy. 3) A variety of academic, social, and career oriented programming designed to encourage close collaboration between STEM students and STEM faculty and to foster a stronger sense of community among STEM students. 4) Two new, interdisciplinary January Term courses that will introduce students to STEM internship opportunities and interdisciplinary approaches to problems in contemporary society. 5) Faculty development workshops that will help our STEM faculty improve the quality of their teaching across 7 STEM departments. As a result of these efforts, it is anticipated that the University of St. Thomas will
directly draw an additional 100 students into its STEM programs over 5 years and will
increase the likelihood that an additional 50 students per year (estimated) will stay in
their STEM programs and graduate with an undergraduate STEM degree. In addition, an
estimated 40 STEM faculty will significantly revise 65 undergraduate STEM courses as a way
of improving the quality of our STEM programs and enhancing the rate of retention in our
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