STEM Scholars

What is STEM Scholars?

The University of New Orleans (UNO) STEM Scholars Program is a 5-day intensive transition or "boot" camp for incoming freshmen students. We will offer one biology camp geared towards Biology I and two math camps (Algebra and Trigonometry/Calculus) aimed at all science, engineering, and pre-engineering majors. The Scholars will get a jump start on required course content, attend lectures from faculty who teach first-year courses, develop critical skills necessary for academic success (e.g., note taking, time management, testing), have a safe space to fail without being graded, and develop study groups and a sense of community with other students who will be sitting beside them in Fall classes. Scholars will also learn about careers from professionals in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields and be guided by peer mentors throughout the camp experience.

Why Are We Doing This?

The United States is not producing enough science and engineering graduates to meet future needs. More than half of all STEM majors drop out of these fields before graduation. The transition from high school to college is more difficult than many students anticipate – students have to find new friends and support systems, manage their time, and learn how to study at a faster and more demanding pace than they have experienced before. If they have to learn these skills through trial-and-error, they risk poor grades, disillusionment, and dropping out.

We want to provide our students with the skills they need to succeed! We launched this program in 2015 to give STEM freshmen that extra push they need to do well academically, feel comfortable in their new college life, and establish relationships that will carry through their time at UNO. We restarted the program in summer 2023 after a 3 year hiatus due to COVID. Our program has a proven track record of improving students' scores in their Fall courses and in increasing their graduation rates in 4 years! All camp students had higher retention (about 10% higher, depending upon the cohort year) after one semester than STEM freshman who didn't take the camp at UNO.