Supporting Students for Success in Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics

盐湖城威斯敏斯特学院将为计算机科学、物理和数学（CSPM）专业的学生提供奖学金和支持计划。该项目将资助18名学生，为期4年。申请人的招募范围将会很广，但要鼓励第一代大学生、女学生以及来自传统上在CSPM专业中代表性不足的少数民族和种族背景的学生。这些学生在CSPM的比例低于威斯敏斯特学院的整体比例。增加这些数字的一个实质性障碍是上大学的经济负担，学生的经济需求往往超出了他们的经济援助计划。这个奖学金项目将减轻这种负担，提高这些专业的毕业率，这些专业对我们国家的经济竞争力至关重要。该项目将资助18名学生，包括两组6人的大一新生，以及两组3人的大二新生。学者将从威斯敏斯特学院的申请者中选出，申请者必须对CSPM领域之一表现出兴趣，有经济需求，ACT成绩不低于24分，高中GPA不低于3.5分。申请奖学金的大二学生在大学第一学期的平均成绩至少要达到3.0。主要的支持和队伍建设结构包括学生在威斯敏斯特学院的前两个学期参加的文化敏感的研讨会课程。研讨班将以教育第一代、女性和其他代表性不足的学生培养文化敏感性的最佳实践为基础。研讨会将增加团队之间的凝聚力，提供充足的建议和指导机会，并展示CSPM学科的社会相关应用。它将涉及大学资源、学习技能、学生研究和实习等机会，以及职业和研究生院的信息和支持。从第二年开始，将每月举行一次会议，通过积极的建议、指导和专业机会来支持这些学生。所有威斯敏斯特S-STEM学者将与教师、同行和校友导师配对，他们将被邀请参加每月的午餐。他们的学业进步将通过威斯敏斯特大学已经制定的详细期中报告进行密切监控。任何潜在的问题都将通过多方面的支持来解决，包括一对一的私人辅导，不需要学生付费。威斯敏斯特学院的学生与教师比例为9:1，教师专注于教学，为困难学生提供广泛的支持网络，为优秀学生提供研究和其他机会，为S-STEM学者提供支持。威斯敏斯特大学在服务女学生方面取得了成功，计算机科学的毕业率达到了全国平均水平，物理和数学的毕业率超过了全国平均水平，而且在过去十年里，学生人数的多样性也在不断增加。文化研讨会将成为威斯敏斯特大学和其他学院其他学科的示范课程。本次研讨会的经验教训将在本项目结束后继续为CSPM学生服务。该项目还将探索加强对学生的监督和指导的影响，如果成功，这些干预措施可以在所有STEM学生中实施。项目人员将在国家和区域会议上分享整个项目的研讨会设计和成果。

Westminster College of Salt Lake City will implement a scholarship and support program for students majoring in Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics (CSPM). The program will support 18 students for a period of 4 years. Applicant recruiting will be broad, but seek to encourage first-generation college students, female students, and students from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented minorities in CSPM majors. The proportion of these students in CSPM is less than that at Westminster College as a whole. One substantial barrier to increasing these numbers is the financial burden of attending college and often a student's financial need is beyond their financial aid package offer. This scholarship program will ease that burden and increase the graduation rate in these majors that are vital for our nation's economic competitiveness. This project will fund a total of 18 students with two six-student cohorts beginning in their first year, as well as two cohorts of three students each beginning in their sophomore year. Scholars will be selected from the applicants to Westminster College who have indicated an interest in one of the CSPM fields, have financial need, have an ACT score of at least 24, and a high school GPA of at least 3.5. Applicants for awards as sophomores should have at least a 3.0 GPA in their first semester of college. The main support and cohort-building structure consists of a culturally sensitive seminar course taken by students during their first two semesters at Westminster College. The seminar class will be based on best practices for educating first generation, female, and other underrepresented students to be culturally sensitive. The seminar will increase cohesion among cohorts, provide ample opportunities for advising and mentoring, and demonstrate socially relevant applications of CSPM disciplines. It will address college resources, study skills, opportunities such as student research and internships, as well as career and graduate school information and support. Starting in the second year, there will be monthly meetings to support these students through active advising, mentoring, and professional opportunities. All Westminster S-STEM Scholars will be matched with faculty, peer, and alumni mentors who will be invited to the monthly luncheons. Their academic progress will be closely monitored using detailed midterm reports already in place at Westminster. Any potential issues will be addressed with multi-faceted support, including one-on-one private tutoring at no cost to the student. With its 9:1 student to faculty ratio, faculty focused on teaching, an extensive support network for struggling students, research and other opportunities for strong students, Westminster College is well-positioned to provide support to S-STEM scholars. Westminster has had demonstrated success in serving female students, with graduating percentages meeting the national average for computer science and exceeding for physics and mathematics and the student population has been increasing in diversity for the last ten years, The cultural seminar will serve as a model course for other disciplines at Westminster and for other colleges. The lessons learned in this seminar will continue to serve CSPM students beyond the life of this project. The project will also be able to explore the impact of increased monitoring and mentoring of students, and if successful these interventions can be implemented for all STEM students. Project personnel will share the seminar design and results from the project as a whole at national and regional conferences.