BE-STEM

Belonging and Excellence in STEM

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  3. BE-STEM Goals, Objectives and Benefits

BE-STEM Goals, Objectives and Benefits

The overarching goal of BE-STEM is to empower all STEM students, with a targeted focus on students who come from demographics that are underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Our program has four core pillars:

  1. Supporting the retention, completion and transfer of STEM students
  2. Providing experiential learning opportunities to STEM students
  3. Providing a space and several opportunities for STEM students to build community
  4. Connecting students to mental health and well-being interventions

Specifically, we are meeting this goal by:

Objective 1: Retention

Empower and resource students throughout their time in our STEM programs, especially at key transition points (college entry, procuring research opportunities, graduation, and transfer to a STEM Bachelor’s program). Our retention objective also encompasses peer tutoring, advising, mentoring, college success workshops, and building a sense of community within STEM.

Objective 2: Nurturing a STEM identity

STEM is multidimensional, interdisciplinary and multicultural. At BE-STEM, we believe that there are numerous ways to BELONGING and EXCELLING as a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician etc. To this end, we are committed to exposing students to the wide array of careers and diversity of people in STEM. Representation matters, and the more students see themselves in STEM, the more their STEM identity is nurtured.

We are meeting this objective by providing opportunities for students to participate in internships, internal and external research opportunities, conferences, career fairs and STEM workshops. We are also actively working to create mentorship relationships for our students. 
 

Objective 3: Transfer

We are committed to improving the enrollment, retention, completion and transfer rates of  underrepresented students into STEM bachelor’s programs. 

We are meeting this objective through university visits, participation in university research symposia, transfer workshops and research experiences for undergraduates (REUs).

Objective 4: Research

Research has shown that underrepresented students in STEM that participate in Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs) are 17.4% more likely to persist to graduation. Not only does involvement in research reinforce students’ perception of themselves as scientists and engineers, it also allows students to see the practical significance of the theory they learn in their classes. 

We are meeting this objective by providing opportunities for students to participate in internships, internal and external research opportunities, and through our Undergraduate Research course (UGR 294), which is taught by Ann Murkowski, one of our STEM faculty

AAs a BE-STEM scholar, you will have access to the following resources that will prepare you for the limitless possibilities of a STEM career.

  • Navigation and Referral Services to Campus and Community Resources
  • Paid STEM research opportunities
  • Funding to travel to and present at STEM conferences
  • STEM scholarship and internship announcements
  • Cohort meetings, webinars, field trips, and networking events
  • Access to the STEM Lounge (HS-2535A, 8-6 PM M-Th)
  • An energetic and diverse community of STEM students at North Seattle College