Rockhurst University received a six-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish the Scholarships and Mentoring Advance Retention and Training in STEM (SMART-STEM) program. SMART-STEM supports high-achieving low-income students with unmet financial need pursing degrees in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, or Physics at Rockhurst.

In this project, the UERC’s role is to provide annual formative and progress monitoring data to Rockhurst University as well as a summative report after the program’s completion. Annual formative evaluation findings provide program leaders with insights that inform program planning for each subsequent year. The final summative report will provide program leaders and stakeholders a multi-faceted view of the overall impact and efficacy of the SMART-STEM program at Rockhurst University.