Promote success of STEM students in Mathematics: support the new ASCEND program!
The Carthage Math Department will pilot a program in Fall 2025 to recruit and support the flourishing of students in math-intensive majors. For too many students, especially those whose backgrounds and experiences might challenge traditional expectations, math can become a roadblock. Students who major in many STEM fields, including engineering, chemistry, physics, math, and more, must pass calculus as part of their degree program. Difficulty in this formidable course or its prerequisites can endanger students’ degree pathways and career aspirations. We hope to encourage the success of students in calculus, allowing it to act as a gateway: opening the door to opportunities in STEM.
After a careful self-study of the student experience in math at Carthage, specifically in calculus coursework, we’ve begun developing an initiative we’re calling ASCEND: Advancing Scho
The Carthage ASCEND program needs your support to fund:
Scholarships to recruit and encourage participants, prospective students who might not otherwise join our math community and who might not otherwise see themselves as “math people,”
Academic enrichment for our scholars, including a workshop associated with their calculus sequence course featuring challenging problem solving, encouraging collaboration, and application and extension of the standard course requirements,
Non-academic programming for our scholars, including mentoring, community-building, and leadership opportunities.
With expertise from math faculty, insight from social science colleagues to help us better understand our math community and the struggles our students face, and current students eager to help us plan and serve as mentors, we are excited to see how this program can improve the success of our students, both “by the numbers” in terms of grades earned in Calculus, but even more importantly in terms of student perceptions of themselves as successful “math people” and as leaders in our community.