Four faculty members have turned their involvement with a National Science Foundation grant into a book chapter.

Ryan Savitz, Louise Whitelaw, Sarah Burke, and Matthew Mastropaolo published "Building Community and Learning Agency in First-Year STEM Students," a chapter in Strategies for Student Success in Higher Education: The First-Year Experience.

“The case study we were dealing with in the chapter was based on a group of NU students supported by a $650,000 NSF grant we obtained in 2020,” explains Savitz, the grant’s principal investigator. “The grant provided scholarship money and funds for support services for two cohorts of Pell-eligible, academically talented STEM majors.”

The faculty study focused on the unusually high level of academic persistence among recipients of the grant.

Twelve-student cohorts started in the fall of 2020 and 2021. Nine of the first 12 have either graduated or are still enrolled at Neumann. Six of the second group are currently studying for an NU degree.

Savitz estimates that $400,000 of the grant was directed toward scholarships with each student receiving a minimum of $4,000 per year.

Support services included team-building activities, social events, summer classes to help the students stay on track for graduation, a common academic advisor, and posts as teaching assistants for lower-level classes.

The four Neumann authors are among 39 professors who contributed to the book, a collection of leading-edge research and practical insights on the first-year experience in higher education. It is available at Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Savitz was so impressed by the support that he and his co-authors received from university advancement, enrollment management, the registrar, the business office, the provost, and academic deans that he plans to apply for another NSF grant in March of next year.

This time, his target is $2 million in funding for similar students. “The grant is hyper competitive,” he admits, “but we should know by December 2025.”