Bridge to Doctorate: WAESO LSAMP, Self Efficacy and Academic Community for Underrepresented Minority Student Success

通往博士学位的桥梁：WAESO LSAMP、自我效能和学术社区促进代表性不足的少数族裔学生的成功

• 批准号: 1608928
• 负责人: Antonio Garcia
• 金额: $ 107.5万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1608928&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Bridge; Doctorate; WAESO; LSAMP; Self

For the U.S. to lead the world economically, we must have a strong and vibrant scientific and technological workforce who can create, innovate and lead on the global stage. Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American and Native Americans still currently obtain doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and technology (STEM) in low numbers that are very disproportionate to the overall U.S. population. However, over the past 24 years, the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunity (WAESO) LSAMP alliance has demonstrated unparalleled success in recruiting, retaining, and graduating Bachelor's degree level scientists and engineers from currently underrepresented populations. This Bridge to the Doctorate (BTD) project at WAESO LSAMP's alliance member University of Arizona will further expand efforts beyond the baccalaureate to recruit, admit, enroll, graduate with thesis masters degrees, and fully prepare for admission to doctoral programs, 12 underrepresented minority STEM students who have previously graduated with a Bachelor's degree in STEM from LSAMP participating colleges and universities. This new cohort of 12 students will engage in peer mentoring, challenging research and academic study opportunities, activities, and receive intensive support from their mentors. The primary goal of this project is to recruit and retain a BTD cohort of 12 underrepresented minority STEM Master of Science (M.S.) students who have graduated from LSAMP participating colleges and universities and prepare those 12 STEM M.S. students to be highly competitive in order to enter and succeed in high quality STEM PhD programs. The long-term goal is that the 12 STEM students in this BTD cohort obtain fellowships or research assistantships, be admitted, enroll, and succeed in graduating with a PhD degree and enter into the STEM workforce. The scope of this project is to achieve this overarching goal through 5 tasks before and during two years of full-time graduate study at WAESO LSAMP's alliance member University of Arizona campus: 1) recruit 12 high quality underrepresented minority STEM students who have graduated from LSAMP participating institutions; 2) ensure these students succeed in obtaining an M.S. degree with a thesis; 3) increase each student's research self-efficacy; 4) build a welcoming academic community; and 5) provide coaching for fellowships, PhD program applications, and manuscript writing. This project will utilize two hypotheses derived from the evidence gleaned from the research literature: 1) Improvements in a underrepresented minority student's research self-efficacy will increase the likelihood that a student will pursue a PhD in a STEM field. The student's research self-efficacy will be enhanced by professional development workshops, research experience, and mentoring, which collectively increase student self-confidence and bolster the student's identity as a scientist. 2) Providing a welcoming academic community will decrease the attrition of underrepresented minority graduate students by counteracting isolation of underrepresented minority graduate students. The formation of a tightly knit community will be centered around the regularly scheduled professional development workshops and community building social events. The main approach is to build the self-efficacy of the students by: 1) strengthening their professional development skills; 2) providing them with experience utilizing research tools and skills of their discipline; 3) having students engage with mentors and peers in an academically stimulating community promoting scientific immersion; and 4) exposing students to successful and inspirational underrepresented minority professionals that have already earned a PhD. During the course of two years, after being paired with a faculty mentor, each STEM student will perform research on a regular basis similar to peers with a research assistantship with summer support, write-up their research findings in a masters thesis, defend their research results, and prepare them for publication as a scientific peer-reviewed paper.

美国要在经济上领先世界，我们必须拥有一支强大而充满活力的科技队伍，能够在全球舞台上创造、创新和领导。目前，获得科学、技术、工程和技术 (STEM) 博士学位的西班牙裔/拉丁裔、黑人/非裔美国人和美洲原住民的数量仍然很少，与美国总人口比例非常不成比例。然而，在过去 24 年里，西方扩大学生机会联盟 (WAESO) LSAMP 联盟在从目前代表性不足的人群中招募、保留和毕业学士学位级别的科学家和工程师方面取得了无与伦比的成功。 WAESO LSAMP 联盟成员亚利桑那大学的博士桥梁 (BTD) 项目将进一步扩大本科以外的工作范围，招募、录取、入学、以论文硕士学位毕业，并为进入博士课程做好充分准备，这 12 名少数族裔 STEM 学生此前已从 LSAMP 参与学院和大学毕业并获得 STEM 学士学位。这批新的 12 名学生将参与同伴指导、具有挑战性的研究和学术学习机会、活动，并获得导师的大力支持。该项目的主要目标是招募和留住 12 名从 LSAMP 参与院校毕业的少数族裔 STEM 理学硕士 (M.S.) 学生组成的 BTD 群体，并为这 12 名 STEM 理学硕士做好准备。学生具有高度竞争力，以便进入高质量的 STEM 博士课程并取得成功。长期目标是该 BTD 群体中的 12 名 STEM 学生获得奖学金或研究助理奖学金，被录取、注册并成功毕业并获得博士学位，并进入 STEM 劳动力队伍。该项目的范围是通过在 WAESO LSAMP 联盟成员亚利桑那大学校园进行两年全日制研究生学习之前和期间的 5 项任务来实现这一总体目标： 1) 招收 12 名从 LSAMP 参与机构毕业的高质量、代表性不足的少数族裔 STEM 学生； 2）确保这些学生成功获得硕士学位学位及论文； 3）提高每个学生的科研自我效能感； 4）建立一个热情的学术社区； 5) 提供奖学金、博士项目申请和稿件写作方面的指导。该项目将利用从研究文献中收集的证据得出的两个假设：1）少数族裔学生研究自我效能感的提高将增加学生在 STEM 领域攻读博士学位的可能性。专业发展研讨会、研究经验和指导将提高学生的研究自我效能，这些共同增强学生的自信心并增强学生作为科学家的身份。 2) 提供一个热情的学术社区将通过抵消代表性不足的少数族裔研究生的孤立现象来减少代表性不足的少数族裔研究生的流失。紧密结合的社区的形成将围绕定期举办的专业发展研讨会和社区建设社交活动。主要方法是通过以下方式建立学生的自我效能感：1）加强他们的专业发展技能； 2）为他们提供使用其学科研究工具和技能的经验； 3）让学生在学术刺激的社区中与导师和同龄人互动，促进科学沉浸； 4）让学生接触到已经获得博士学位的成功且鼓舞人心的少数族裔专业人士。在两年的时间里，在与导师配对后，每位 STEM 学生将像获得暑期支持的研究助理的同龄人一样定期进行研究，将他们的研究成果写在硕士论文中，捍卫他们的研究成果，并准备将其作为科学同行评审论文发表。