**3. Conclusion**

The United States is a technologically advanced nation and a world leader in STEM, but it competes with China for technological supremacy which has triggered a national STEM crisis. Consequently, HEIs and other organizations have taken on the responsibility for STEM education. As part of that response this study developed the STEM Student Success Model to address the challenge of URM STEM students who leave their majors in the first two critical years. The introduction of critical elements for the model was based on the NSSE survey and other sources that have been tested.

This chapter identified the most likely critical elements for STEM students that will formulate the model. The first major section, learning with peers addressed the types of resources that STEM students may have access to including peer tutoring, peer supplemental instruction, peer cooperative learning, and peer-led team learning. This section included a peer supplemental instruction model which details major STEM skills that students would be expected to master in STEM majors. The next major section, interactions with faculty showed how positive interactions between faculty and students can lead to positive outcomes including opportunities to discuss coursework outside of class and feedback about academic work, research projects, career plans, and STEM exam wrappers.

The third major section, STEM employability skills recognized the need to prepare students for the workforce by having employers communicate their employability skill requirements to the HEI, participating in internships and research, and embedding employability skills and career-preparedness into the STEM curricula. The last section, a supportive campus environment addressed what the HEI can offer to students including STEM intervention programs, STEM learning communities, and co-curricular activities. Also, the subsection on URM STEM students addressed disparities between URM and non-URM students and how the disparities can be overcome through early intervention programs, mathematics skills development, mentoring network usage, and data tracking to identify what works for URM students. The model depicts all four main sections but users would also need to access the details for more information on how STEM students were successful in their studies.
