Sustaining Undergraduate Classroom and Career Excellence for STEM Students (SUCCESS) Project

在内布拉斯加州，推动该州经济的12个产业集群中有7个与STEM相关。然而，内布拉斯加州的STEM雇主很难雇用和留住高素质、技术熟练的员工，理由是"有限的劳动力供应"是全州业务增长的主要劣势。Doane College的Sustaining Undergraduate Classroom and Career Excellence for STEM Students（SUCCESS）项目将为24名在生物学、生物化学、化学、环境科学或物理学课程中有经济需求的学术天赋学生提供奖学金。通过增加STEM专业的招生人数，并将学生与当地STEM行业联系起来，该项目将满足内布拉斯加州对高素质STEM劳动力的需求。该项目的技术优势在于其计划设计，实施，评估和推进支持STEM学生成功的实践，如STEM生活和学习社区，四年毕业保证，共同的课程结构，STEM研讨会，和本科研究经验。在高素质的PI团队的指导下，并在强有力的机构支持下，SUCCESS项目将评估STEM招聘活动，以提高有关哪些活动在增加STEM学生中学后入学率方面最成功的知识。此外，该项目将建立在过去和目前的EPSCoR资金，以增加STEM学生的研究机会的数量和质量，以及STEM学生参加和出席专业STEM会议的机会。评估结果将在Doane社区和其他中学后机构和STEM专业人员中传播，以促进STEM学生招聘，毕业保留以及STEM职业准备和安置的知识和实践，从而有助于有关这种类型的本科生奖学金项目的知识基础以及使其成功的基本要素。

In Nebraska, seven of the twelve industry clusters that drive the state economy are STEM-related. However, Nebraska STEM employers struggle to employ and retain highly qualified, technically skilled employees, citing "limited workforce availability" as the primary disadvantage to business growth statewide. Doane College's Sustaining Undergraduate Classroom and Career Excellence for STEM Students (SUCCESS) Project will award scholarships to 24 academically talented students with financial need in the college's biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, or physics program. Through increasing enrollment in STEM majors and connecting students to local STEM industries, the project will address Nebraska's need for a highly qualified STEM workforce.The technical merit of this project lies in its plan to design, implement, assess, and advance practices that support STEM student success, such as STEM living and learning communities, Four-Year Graduation Guarantees, common coursework structures, STEM workshops, and undergraduate research experiences. Guided by a highly qualified PI team, and with strong institutional support, the SUCCESS project will evaluate STEM recruitment activities in order to advance knowledge regarding which activities are most successful at increasing STEM student postsecondary enrollment. Moreover, the project will build on past and current EPSCoR funding to increase the number and quality of research opportunities for STEM students, as well as opportunities for STEM students to participate and present at professional STEM conferences. Evaluation findings will be disseminated within the Doane community and to other postsecondary institutions and STEM professionals in order to advance the knowledge and practice of STEM student recruitment, retention to graduation, and STEM career preparation and placement, thus contributing to the knowledge base about undergraduate scholarship projects of this type and underlying elements that make them successful.