SANFORD - Central Carolina Community College has been named as a recipient of a $649,609 grant for a project titled "STEP-UP Scholars: Encouraging Scholarship in Science, Technology, and Engineering."

The project is under the direction of CCCC's Dr. Rodney Powell (Chemistry Instructor) -- the primary principal investigator on the project, Andrew McMahan (Department Chair, Sustainability), Constance Boahn (Department Chair, Engineering and Computer Information Technologies), and Dr. Linda Scuiletti (Associate Vice President of Assessment, Planning & Research).

The largest part of the grant will provide full scholarships for a cohort of students in selected STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) majors. In addition to the financial support, the cohort will have mentors and participate in seminars supporting their career pathways in STEM disciplines.

Like the nation at-large, Central Carolina Community College's service area has a documented need for an expanded STEM workforce. This project will address that need by promoting the college and career success of academically talented, financially needy students using a comprehensive learning community focused on intentional student support. Simultaneously, the program will extend professional and economic benefits of STEM careers to historically underrepresented populations, enhancing individual opportunities while diversifying the STEM talent pool.

This project will increase knowledge related to STEM fields while drawing upon a collection of student support practices with strong backing from scholarly literature. The goal is to define replicable, data-proven best practices as they relate to student support services to maximize student outcomes. This project's intentional support system begins with a rigorous recruitment plan; continues with faculty mentoring, professional success coaching, and cohort-specific coursework; and culminates with individualized guidance for career and transfer decisions.

This comprehensive and intensive student services system will be compared with traditional advisor/success coach models by tracking student retention and graduation outcomes, producing quantitative and qualitative data on best practices in student support for both traditional and underrepresented student populations.

This award started Aug. 1, 2016 and ends July 31, 2021.

For more information on the STEP-UP Scholars project, contact CCCC Chemistry Instructor Dr. Rodney Powell at 919-718-7462 or by email at rpowe757@cccc.edu.

For more information on Central Carolina Community College, visit www.cccc.edu.