Five years ago, Mesa Community College, AZ set out to change what the path into STEM looks like for Hispanic and low-income students. This month, MN Associates is wrapping up our work as the external evaluator for MCC’s HSI-STEM Guided Pathways Enhancement Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education (2021 to 2026).
Some results from the Year 5 summative evaluation:
📈 First-year STEM retention reached 60.8%, the highest of the grant and above its 55% target.
🎓 9% of students transferred and stayed in STEM, beating the 5% target for the third straight year.
🤝 1,579 students used grant-funded support services in Year 5, up from 50 in Year 1.
🔬 142 students took part in undergraduate research, four times the annual target.
🏫 Full-time STEM enrollment beat its target every year the grant ran.
The five-year picture also points to the next chapter. The first three-year STEM completion rate (7.4%) set a baseline the college can now build on. Closing the remaining transfer gap with non-low-income peers and easing the financial pressures students report are clear places to focus next.
Thank you to the faculty, staff, and institutional research team at MCC for five years of partnership and careful data work. It has been a privilege to learn alongside you.
#HSISTEM #STEMEducation #CommunityCollege #StudentSuccess
