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Recruiting and Enrolling Rural Students: A Model for Increasing Diversity in STEM

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Abstract

The Rural and Diverse Student Scholars Program at George Mason University is a strategic initiative to recruit and retain rural and diverse Virginia students in STEM majors. A grant facilitated a partnership between an academic college and the Office of Admissions, enabling new recruiting methods to be tested. In this article we describe these recruitment efforts, summarize the outcomes, and share lessons learned. We observed themes of family involvement, finances, and perceived opportunity as relevant to this population’s decision to enroll. Our experience recruiting for this program may inform other institutions that desire to diversify their student body in STEM.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this program was provided by the National Science Foundation S-STEM, Award #1564989. The authors recognize Mary Emenike, Rutgers University, for her leadership as External Evaluator of the RADSS program. We thank Mason Admissions staff members Pete Saenz, Christina Badalis, Angela Livingston, and Casey Catlin for their contribution to this program. RMJ thanks Kerin Hilker-Balkissoon, Padhu Seshaiyer, and colleagues from the STEM Accelerator in the College of Science. For his involvement in the original grant proposal, RC acknowledges Richard Freisner, former Director of K12 Partnerships, Office of Admissions at Mason.

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Correspondence to Rebecca M. Jones.

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Jones, R.M., Cleaver, R. Recruiting and Enrolling Rural Students: A Model for Increasing Diversity in STEM. Innov High Educ 45, 253–263 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09499-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09499-6

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