Phase II: University of Maryland, Baltimore County – STEM BUILD

STEM BUILD at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a comprehensive initiative that seeks to foster institutional change by integrating interventions and best practices found to be of significant impact to the success of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates. In Phase I of the BUILD Training Program (BTP), the student training core investigated how to best support and retain promising students who had no other significant programmatic support in select STEM majors. BTP applicants deemed eligible for the research study were randomly assigned to one of three groups – BTP, STEM Living and Learning Community (LLC), or BUILD Control (with monetary incentives for survey completion). BTP students were provided with financial and programmatic support that included a variety of activities intended to help them succeed in their STEM majors. Phase I initiatives in the research training core included instruction in responsible conduct in research for BTP Trainees and the BUILD a Bridge to STEM summer internship for students from five community colleges and Gallaudet University. Also, the institutional core supported the STEM LLC, a new STEM-focused on-campus residence for students and the Active Learning Inquiry-based Teaching (ALIT) certificate program for STEM faculty.

In Phase II, the STEM BUILD motto, “Think 500, not 50,” will continue by refining, scaling-up, and sustaining the interventions started in Phase I. The training core will expand novel curricula and change its focus to support promising direct-entry BUILD Training Program students during their first two years at UMBC with follow-up support to BTP affiliate alumni for research and presentation experiences. Under the research core, STEM BUILD summer internships for students from our collaborating institutions will expand from six to eight weeks and will continue with peer mentor team support. Under the BUILD 2.0 institutional core, the STEM LLC expanded programming will continue and the ALIT certificate for STEM faculty training will expand with an advanced post-certificate option and added emphasis on culturally responsive teaching. Additional changes include a student success coach for BTP, a STEM BUILD communications coordinator, a teaching postdoc position for a recent PhD interested in a STEM education career, and a diversity mentoring team to interact with BTP Trainees and Affiliates.