Executive Director of Extended Studies Virginia State University, United States
Program Abstract: There is a decrease in retention of STEM majors among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) despite a recent increase in institutional efforts and funding. While some progress has been made, there is an urgent need to develop an innovative approach to significantly increase retention in STEM, especially among underrepresented groups. The use of technology in the classroom has been proven to have a positive impact on student engagement and performance. We propose to develop the High-5 app that will encourage students to engage in relevant high-impact practices filtered by current and former students, professors, administrators, and industry members in STEM. We hypothesize that students who use the High-5 app will be more likely to be retained in STEM. Furthermore, this will help students avoid email fatigue as well as overcome the challenge of not being informed of opportunities on and off campus.
