Rural Low Income Student Investigations Network Groups: Researching Belonging in STEM, Community, and Higher Education

The Rural Low-Income Students S-STEM Investigations Network Groups Research Hub (RISING Hub) will provide infrastructure for a strategic alliance among Rural Serving Institutions to collaborate and conduct research aimed at increasing rural, low-income college students’ success in STEM majors and participation in STEM careers. Specific project activities include managing Rural Serving Institution Network Groups to gather and analyze data and insights from the experiences of rural, low-income students who are participating in the NSF S-STEM program and provide capacity-building and technical support for STEM faculty at Rural Serving Institutions to conduct education research about the role of belonging in rural student persistence, graduation, and STEM employment. The overarching goal of the RISING hub is to address the existing gap in rural STEM higher education research about how to support rural, low-income students, who face specific challenges in enrolling in, persisting in, and completing STEM degrees.