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UNM and CNM continue to strive to increase graduation and retention rates of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors.
Glenda Kodaseet, program specialist of UNM’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Undergraduate Pathway (STEM UP) program, said the program has been working with CNM students who want to transfer to UNM. She said CNM and UNM are helping hundreds of students.
“It’s not really a membership program,” Kodaseet said. “It’s an outreach program that has touched probably 200 students at CNM and roughly 700 students here at UNM.”
STEM UP is a program that received a $3.4 million grant from the state’s Department of Education last fall. Last month, CNM and UNM established three transfer agreements through the grant.
Now, Associate of Science degrees in physics, chemistry, nutrition, engineering and biology from CNM can count toward Bachelor of Science degree programs at UNM.
Kodaseet said the program offers mentorship programs to CNM and UNM students. She said there are 20 peer mentors located at CNM and UNM. CNM mentors work mainly with incoming freshmen and current students, while UNM mentors work mainly with CNM students who are ready to transfer to UNM.
“Mentors do outreach activities involving study groups,” Kodaseet said. “We help them, encourage them, and mentors share their STEM experience, like which classes they liked, their study habits and time management.”
Roberto Vazquez, an articulation analyst at STEM UP, said the program helps students with their curriculum by providing road maps, which “work on a line of curriculum between degrees that both schools currently have,” and tip sheets for their chosen academic programs.
Vazquez said STEM UP advisers help students learn faster.
“Aside from looking at a student’s academics, we direct them towards the path they should be taking,” he said. “We direct them toward faculty that would help them with that. We’re helping them get their degree faster. It’s not about telling them which classes to take. We go a little further to help them get a degree.”
The program targets freshmen by performing 800 STEM classroom visits and by reaching out to students through email, Kodaseet said. She said STEM UP will visit 500 various STEM classrooms at UNM this summer and plans to increase their number of visits by the fall semester.
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Kodaseet said mentors work with faculty in the program.
“Peer mentors are liaisons with our faculty,” she said. “The faculty is very involved in suggesting courses to take when students transfer.”
Stephen Lujan, who was admitted into the School of Engineering during his first semester of college in the fall of 2011, said STEM UP will be helpful for STEM majors at UNM.
Lujan said joining a support group and learning from a mentor is helpful.
“I have a very supportive family, but they can only be there for so much,” Lujan said. “To have a support group of people who have already graduated in my field and can say, ‘Hey, watch out for this,’ is a really big deal for me, a person who is doing it for the first time.”
Judea Wiggins, a biology major and chemistry minor, said having a support system at home and at school is necessary to succeed. She said these resources help ease the stress of being in college.
”To be successful in the sciences, it is necessary to have a strong support system, guidance program and resources available,” she said. “The stress that comes along with that can be overwhelming at times, and that’s why having those resources are so important.”
