Writing and Implementing Successful NSF S-STEM Proposals

For over 10 years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been funding S-STEM proposals. The S-STEM program “makes grants to institutions of higher education to support scholarships for academically talented students demonstrating financial need, enabling them to enter the STEM workforce or STEM graduate school following completion of an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate-level degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics disciplines.” Currently, there are 1,148 active S-STEM grants at over 580 institutions of higher education in the United States. At the authors’ institution, three separate NSF S-STEM proposals have been funded since 2011. In this paper, the authors provide specific information on the approaches they used to write and implement successful NSF S-STEM proposals. The paper also provides details on the impact these programs are having at this institution, including strategies that have been successful in engaging students, enhancing student learning, and increasing self-efficacy and retention.