Addressing persistence and retention of chemistry and biochemistry majors with engagement seminars beyond the first year

Abstract

Undergraduate persistence and retention are two measures widely used by institutions to measure student success. In 2020, the national rate at which newly enrolled full‐time students persisted decreased for the first time in 7 years with the largest decrease in persistence rates for Hispanic students. The recent declines in both persistence and retention are attributed to the global pandemic. The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), a Hispanic‐serving institution, is home to the Cardinal Chemistry Scholars (C2S) program that is supported by an NSF S‐STEM grant. The C2S program provides financial and academic support along with mentoring and career plan development to a financially disadvantaged cohort of chemistry and biochemistry majors. While over the last 20 years, most institutions have adopted first‐year seminars or experiences known to have positive impacts on both retention and persistence for first time freshman, we developed a series of engagement seminar courses that our C2S scholars take each semester until graduation. The engagements seminars include various activities that address the specific needs of students as they progress through their college years including skills development, career planning, academic engagement, and community building. Our preliminary data suggests that our continuous seminar series results in higher levels of persistence and retention among participating students compared to non‐participating students with no declines during the pandemic.