New NSF grant to expand STEM pathways to UNC Charlotte for CCC students

Staff Reports | Cleveland Community College

Cleveland Community College is one of two new regional partners in an initiative led by UNC Charlotte that expands STEM pathways for academically talented, low-income students. UNC Charlotte recently received $2 million as part of a $5 million National Science Foundation grant to grow the successful partnership across the region.

The new award builds on the earlier SPARC 4 initiative and launches SPARC 6, a five-institution collaboration designed to improve retention, transfer and graduation rates in biology, computer science and data science. The new $5 million grant will offer scholarships to students at UNC Charlotte and four North Carolina community colleges. The latest grant brings the multi-year total to more than $9.5 million in funding to support students seeking degrees in STEM fields.

The project is led by Elizabeth Stearns, professor and director of the Public Policy doctoral program in UNC Charlotte’s College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences. Stearns is joined in the interdisciplinary research by co-principal investigators Morgan Carter, assistant professor of biological sciences in the Klein College of Science, and Moson Dorodchi, teaching professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics.

The expanded consortium adds Cleveland Community College and South Piedmont Community College to the existing partnership with Gaston College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Students who receive the scholarships will earn associate degrees at all four community colleges and may transfer directly to UNC Charlotte to complete bachelor’s degrees.

Under the new grant, each community college will award five to ten scholarships annually, creating strong, supportive cohorts of STEM students. The first cohort will start in the fall of 2026. Across the five-year project, at least 120 students will receive scholarship support as they progress from associate to bachelor’s degrees.

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The SPARC 6 program aims to increase the number of students who earn associate degrees, successfully transfer to UNC Charlotte and complete bachelor’s degrees in high demand STEM fields. The initiative provides scholarships, proactive advising, faculty and peer mentoring, undergraduate research opportunities, and cohorted coursework to build both “transfer capital” and “science capital,” concepts shown to support student success in STEM.

The institutions emphasize the importance of these supports, noting that the project will increase student success rates towards both associate and bachelor’s degree completion.

The new grant represents an expansive step for the region’s STEM workforce pipeline.

“This award allows us to expand a proven model that supports students academically, socially and financially, from their first semester in community college through graduation at UNC Charlotte,” said Stearns. “By strengthening the bridge between two-year and four-year institutions, we’re helping students build the skills, networks and confidence they need to thrive in the STEM workforce.”

The research component of SPARC 6 will examine the factors that contribute to successful transitions between two-year and four-year institutions, including the role of social and cultural capital, mentoring relationships, soft skills and academic integration. Findings will inform best practices for supporting transfer students in STEM fields nationwide.

The new grant builds on the strong outcomes of the SPARC 4 initiative, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the cohort model, centralized advising and faculty mentoring. At Gaston College alone, 83% of students in the earlier SPARC program graduated, and 87% transferred to a university, with many completing bachelor’s degrees.

The expanded SPARC 6 consortium will host joint programming across all partner institutions, including regional undergraduate research symposia, faculty development workshops, field trips and a shared S-STEM orientation. Community college partners will also collaborate with UNC Charlotte to develop new research-based courses that align with statewide articulation agreements, improving the efficiency of credit transfer.

UNC Charlotte, North Carolina’s urban research university, serves more than 32,000 students and plays a central role in meeting the region’s workforce needs. With major growth in biology and biotechnology, data analytics and computing sectors, the leaders from the institutions say the SPARC 6 program will help prepare students for emerging opportunities across the Charlotte region.

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Press release.

The Shelby Independent.