Pitzer College Mentors Enable, Connect, Help, Advocate, Nurture, Intervene, Sustain, and Motivate (MECHANISM) for Success in the Molecular Sciences

通过导师支持、连接、帮助、倡导、培育、干预、维持和激励（机制）项目，Pitzer学院的一个教师和管理团队正在增加具有经济需求的学术天才学生的数量，这些学生获得化学、生物化学或分子生物学学士学位。该项目招募了16名一年级学生，目标是通过强调利用学术资源的价值的综合学生发展计划，将他们留在选定的STEM领域毕业。通过提供更多的这些专业，该项目有助于扩大STEM劳动力，以帮助满足地区和国家的需求。此外，为了扩大参与，正在积极招收来自科学领域代表性不足的群体的学生——非裔美国人、拉丁裔美国人、亚裔美国人/太平洋岛民和土著美国人（ALANA）。项目实施的技术特点涉及到学生的一系列机会，包括(a)向同伴导师学习（辅导和补充指导），(b)提高书面沟通技巧（写作中心），(c)体验其他文化（出国留学），(d)建立同伴网络并练习高级推理技能（霍华德休斯医学研究所暑期浸入式项目），(d)为前沿研究做出贡献，(e)参加实习。通过评估和评价产生的数据有望支持这样一种理论，即通过培养“文化资本”（例如，与学生在整个学术生涯中的学业成功相关的性格、态度和信念），可以实现STEM领域学生的高留存率。项目评估的重点是学生的学术参与和支持服务的使用，学生的内容知识和教师的反馈。此外，该项目希望在学生毕业后对他们进行跟踪，并就项目的持续影响对他们进行采访。项目成果的传播有望为如何帮助STEM学生发展文化资本提供一个模式，并将其作为毕业时保留文化资本的手段。该项目团队计划通过克莱蒙特学院联盟的教学和学习中心以及美国化学学会的全国会议来展示其工作。

Through the Mentors Enable, Connect, Help, Advocate, Nurture, Intervene, Sustain, and Motivate (MECHANISM) project a team of faculty and administrators at Pitzer College is increasing the number of academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn baccalaureate degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, or molecular biology. The project is recruiting sixteen first-year students with the goal of retaining them to graduation in the selected STEM fields through a comprehensive program of student development that emphasizes the value of utilizing academic resources. In providing increased access to these majors, the project is contributing to the enlargement of the STEM workforce that can help meet regional and national needs. In addition, to broaden participation, students from groups that are under-represented in the sciences - African American, Latino(a) American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and Native American (ALANA) - are actively being recruited.Technical features of the project implementation involve students in an array of opportunities including (a) learning from peer mentors (tutoring and supplemental instruction), (b) improving written communication skills (Writing Center), (c) experiencing other cultures (Study Abroad), (d) creating peer networks and practicing high-level reasoning skills (Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Immersion Program), (d) contributing to cutting-edge research, and (e) participating in internships. Data generated through assessment and evaluation is expected to support the rationale that high retention of students in STEM fields is achievable through cultivation of "cultural capital," (e.g. dispositions, attitudes, and beliefs related to students' academic success throughout their academic careers). Project evaluation focuses on student academic engagement and use of support services, student content knowledge, and faculty feedback. Moreover, the project expects to track its students after graduation and interview them about the project's ongoing impact. Dissemination of the project results is expected to provide a model for how helping STEM students develop cultural capital can be used as a means of retaining them through graduation. The project team plans to present its work through Teaching and Learning Centers in the Claremont Colleges Consortium as well as through national meetings of the American Chemical Society.