Abstract
In this work, we present our experience on an NSF S-STEM grant that recruited and supported 39 talented and financially needy undergraduate students with potential to succeed in academic pursuits. There were 17 community college transfer students and 22 high school seniors recruited altogether. Among them were 11 Hispanic students and 13 female students. Despite the support of the scholarship, seven students could not continue in the program due to insufficient academic performance as they were working extra hours to pay for living expenses. In the Hispanic student group, it is found that their overall GPA went down near the end of the S-STEM program while other groups’ overall GPAs remained unaffected or improved. The female students were found to maintain a higher GPA than that of the male students. The overall GPA of the students recruited from high schools went down, and all the attritions were from the group of the recruits from high schools. In various support services, midterm mentoring was found to be helpful for students at risk and undergraduate research participation was found to be effective in seeking employment in leading industry by some students.