Supporting Low-Income Students for Success in STEM Careers

该项目由美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）项目资助，将支持西德克萨斯农工大学表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生。该项目将解决在STEM领域（包括生物学、化学和物理学）招募、留住和研究生的需求。该项目将向两组15名学生（共30名）提供奖学金，这些学生符合奖学金要求，包括第一年学生身份，SAT/ACT成绩，目标STEM领域专业，高中排名，学术推荐信和得分论文。学生支持活动包括同伴指导、教师指导、关系指导、职业技能发展和领导力培训。该项目还将支持对化学、生物和物理等六门一年级课程的重新设计，目的是提高学生在这些入门课程中的成功率。预计参与项目活动将有助于准备和鼓励学者在毕业后进入STEM职业或研究生课程。该项目有四个目标，分别是学生留存率、入门课程的成功度、学生参与度和毕业率。第一个目标是到2024年，将目标STEM领域的低收入、有学术天赋的学生的第一至第二学期和第一至第二年的保留率提高10%。第二个目标是提高学生在入门课程中的成功率。第三个目标是到2024年将低收入学术人才的毕业率提高10%。第四个目标是提高学生对高影响力实践的参与度。学生参与度将通过全国学生参与度调查进行评估。该项目将在指导、非认知和领导技能发展以及课程重新设计方面使用基于证据的实践来实现这些目标。智力贡献包括评估项目干预对学者的综合影响程度，包括第一年/高年级参与度、保留率、毕业率、高影响力实践的高年级参与度，以及检查学生参与度和保留率之间的相关性。该项目的结果将通过系统网站发布到德克萨斯农工大学系统，并通过化学、物理和生物学期刊上的科学会议和文章发布到全国。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at West Texas A&M University. The project will address the need to recruit, retain, and graduate students in STEM fields, including biology, chemistry, and physics. This project will provide scholarships to two cohorts of 15-students (30 total) who meet scholarship requirements that include first year student status, SAT/ACT scores, majoring in a target STEM field, high school rank, an academic recommendation letter, and a scored essay. Student support activities include peer mentoring, faculty mentoring, relational coaching, career skill development, and leadership training. This project will also support a redesign of six first-year courses in chemistry, biology, and physics, with the goal of increasing student success in these gateway courses. It is expected that participation in program activities will help prepare and encourage the Scholars to enter STEM careers or graduate programs following graduation.The project has four objectives centered on retention, success in gateway courses, student engagement, and graduation. The first objective is to increase first to second semester and first to second year retention rates of low-income, academically-talented students in targeted STEM fields by 10% by 2024. The second objective is to increase student success in gateway courses. The third objective is to increase low income academically talented student graduation rates by 10% by 2024. The fourth objective is to increase student engagement and participation in High Impact Practices. Student engagement will be assessed with the National Survey on Student Engagement. This project will use evidence-based practices in mentoring, non-cognitive and leadership skill development, and course redesign to attain these objectives. Intellectual contributions include evaluating the extent to which the combined effect of project interventions affect scholars in areas including first-year/senior engagement, retention, graduation, senior participation in high impact practices, as well as examining the correlation between student engagement and retention. Results of this project will be disseminated to the Texas A&M System using the System website, and nationally via scientific conferences and articles in chemistry, physics, and biology journals.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.