Improving the Success of Low-Income Students in a Cybersecurity Program

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the "Improving the Success of Low-Income Students in a Cybersecurity Program" project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The program targets students in the Cybersecurity program at Old Dominion University. This five-year S-STEM Track 2 project will fund up to 18 scholarships and will provide students with academic support through mentoring and other program activities. This S-STEM program at Old Dominion University consists of the scholarship program, the support systems, and a strong evaluation and research plan. It aims to accomplish the following outcomes: (1) generate knowledge about the effectiveness of curricular and extracurricular activities that increase retention and graduation of low-income students from three specific groups: military-affiliated, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students; (2) develop a student-support approach that solves the challenges in this cybersecurity STEM program, which is inherently interdisciplinary; and (3) implement a program that engages students in hands-on labs, cyber competitions, research, and internships, so that they develop the hands-on skills desired by the cybersecurity industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.