Madhura Kulkarni
Northern Kentucky University, KY·Education Research
Students from underrepresented groups and students who transfer between colleges often leave science and engineering programs before graduating. Both groups were hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Fields
Education Research
Social Science
Psychology
- Topics
STEM education
student retention
transfer students
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2027
What they work on
- Create and assess a "4C" fellowship for underrepresented and transfer STEM students that combines scholarships with co-mentoring, community building, career development, and research experiences.
- Provide faculty and staff professional development, including co-mentoring in which faculty and students mentor each other, to support these students' transitions into careers.
- Build a lasting campus-wide support system through a Synergies Board that links STEM departments and other units and gives student perspectives more weight in decisions.
- Extend Self-Determination Theory by testing how autonomy, competence, and belonging interact with four frames of systemic change to affect retention, graduation, and career transition.
More about the research
This project asks how a university can change its own structures, not just add support services, so that these students complete STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees and move into careers or graduate school. It builds and studies a "4C model" in which students act as co-creators of change. The four Cs are co-mentoring (students and faculty mentor each other as equals), community building, career development, and content-area research experiences.
Why it matters
Many students from underrepresented groups and transfer students leave STEM before finishing a degree, which narrows who enters science and engineering jobs. A tested model for mentoring, community, career preparation, and research experience could help colleges keep and graduate more of these students. It could also give institutions evidence for designing proactive, long-term STEM support programs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Morehouse College, GA·Education Research
Investigate how HBCUs with diverse academic cultures graduate African American STEM students at higher rates than other institutions, using convergence research across the Morehouse, Spelman and Virginia State hub and about fifty partner HBCUs.
Charles Colen
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, AR·Education Research
Establish a STEM Academy for Research and Entrepreneurship that combines science and business training and builds faculty skill in high-impact practices that engage students.
Jingru Benner
Western New England University, MA·Education Research
Provide four-year scholarships to two cohorts of low-income, high-achieving mechanical engineering students and track their retention and graduation.
The school
Northern Kentucky University: 1 labs on PI Pages, $3M a year on research, 16 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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