Promoting STEM Persistence: Impact of Research Experience for Undergraduates

With over a third of university STEM students dropping out of the major, an essential part of solving the leaky STEM pipeline is to improve persistence in the discipline, especially for underrepresented students. We will share the design and outcomes of a summer research program that ran with three cohorts of students during the summers of 2021, 2022, and 2024. The program was designed to improve the persistence of students from underrepresented backgrounds in the mathematics major and promote graduate study. The program was supported by the Mathematical Association of America with funding from the National Science Foundation.