The 2024 S-STEM Scholars and PI Meeting will be held on November 8-10 in Chicago, Il. Organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the conference brings together S-STEM Scholars, PIs, and Co-PIs from S-STEM Projects from across the country. Conference attendees will hear from several notable speakers, while workshops, discussion panels, and poster sessions will offer a chance to connect and learn about and from others in the S-STEM community.
PROSPECT S-STEM members submitted a number of presentation and workshop proposals to hold at the S-STEM PI Symposium in November. We'll keep you updated on whether these get accepted to present at the conference (and if so, when and where); these also represent various directions our large research team is pursuing.
Here's a sneak peek of what our hub might be offering:
Project Partnerships: Strategies for Enhancing Differing Perspectives
Many S-STEM project partnerships offer unique opportunities to collaborate across disciplines and institutions. In this workshop, PROSPECT HUB members share strategies and techniques to turn collaborative opportunities into effective, inclusive partnerships. Distributed leadership, co-equitable project management, and empowering team dynamics are just some of the topics this workshop will address.
Administering S-STEM Awards: Sharing Lessons Learned about Productive Structures and Strategies
In this discussion panel, PROSPECT HUB members will structure discussions around S-STEM grant administration challenges. These challenges can include how to: effectively award scholarships (technical approaches), nurture Scholar communities when not all Scholars are at the same point in their college journeys, coordinate data collection for research and evaluation purposes to minimize the burdens on Scholars, institutionalize S-STEM student supports to last beyond grant funding, and build necessary flexibility into your project.
How to Start a Professional Learning Community to Support S-STEM Project Goals
S-STEM PIs and project staff have a common goal of supporting S-STEM students with financial need. The complex challenges inherent in multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary S-STEM projects offer opportunities for collaboration as a professional learning community (PLCs). In this discussion panel, PROSPECT HUB members will describe the multiple ways PLCs are operationalized in current S-STEM projects as well as research-based steps, strategies and techniques for attendees to initiate a PLC in their own S-STEM project.
Invisible Labor: Shining a Light on the Hidden Work Entailed in Successful S-STEM Projects
Successful S-STEM projects often reflect tacitly expected extra service and effort, or hidden work, rarely captured in grant narratives and budgets. This discussion panel will begin with PROSPECT HUB members sharing examples of hidden work within successful S-STEM projects, and then guiding attendees’ reflections on the nature of hidden work common within S-STEM projects, connections between hidden work and power dynamics in S-STEM projects, and practices to reveal, value, and plan for hidden work they can apply in their S-STEM project.
Unique Factors in Bridging the Gap between a Rural Community College to an Urban University
S-STEM partnerships provide vital resources for STEM students, particularly for students who begin their education at rural community colleges intending to transfer to an urban university. To serve these students, rural-urban S-STEM partnerships must bridge two different educational contexts. Money, often in the form of S-STEM Scholarships, is often not enough to ensure a smooth transfer. In this poster presentation, PROSPECT HUB members center a rural-urban S-STEM partnership to identify factors creating tension in the STEM transfer pathway between a rural community college and an urban university. Identifying these hurdles can help strengthen future partnerships and improve the transition for rural-urban STEM students.
How to Start a PLC: A Literature Review and Research Opportunities
A professional learning community (PLC) is a group of professionals that shares ideas to improve practice and create an inclusive environment. However, obstacles to successful implementation, such as stakeholder resistance, budgetary policies, and turnover are common. In this poster presentation, PROSPECT HUB members offer a comprehensive literature review on PLCs to uncover the concrete steps common in the creation and development of a PLC. This presentation then describes how these steps were operationalized with the PROSPECT HUB S-STEM community.
Scholars’ Perceptions of Engaging S-STEM Program Method
Less than 40% of students who start a STEM degree at a two-year degree granting institution complete it. Engagement is key to increasing this percentage. In this poster presentation, data from Scholar focus groups conducted at three Midwestern S-STEM programs describe Scholars’ perspectives on which cognitive (i.e., teaching structures), emotional (i.e., interpersonal interactions) and social (i.e., community-building structures) strategies are most effective in engaging S-STEM Scholars. These perspectives can be used to create engaging S-STEM Scholar strategies and techniques.
Summary provided by Michelle Maher and Wendy Smith