Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) S-STEM Scholarship Program

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）项目将支持威斯康星州密尔沃基市威斯康辛路德学院（WLC）表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。在五年的时间里，该项目将为两组攻读生物学、生物化学、化学或海洋生物学学士学位的学生提供14个奖学金，每组7人。小型学院通常有优秀的、蓬勃发展的科学项目，这些项目经常培养出合格的学生，让他们进入研究生院或从事各种STEM领域的职业。私立大学的班级规模较小，师资和设施都很好，但要维持这些特色，需要支付更高的费用，这让许多低收入家庭的学生负担不起。此外，严格的STEM入门课程为学生更专业的高级课程和未来的职业生涯做好了准备，但流失率相对较高。WLC S-STEM学者（WSSS）计划将通过提供奖学金援助和早期研究机会来解决这些问题，帮助学生通过入门STEM课程。与当地高中、家庭学校协会和大学预科项目的合作将提供来自不同背景的优秀候选人。WSSS项目希望将大型研究型大学进行的STEM教育研究应用到小型文理学院。该项目将在学生的教育早期向他们介绍STEM实验室研究，并在他们的本科职业生涯中保持这种接触。这将使STEM课程的概念和实践变得正确，将增加与教师和高年级学生的一对一互动，以建立更好的师徒关系，并将为实习和职业目标提供宝贵的经验。增加指导将确保项目学者了解并利用诸如辅导、研讨会和职业准备机会等资源。最后，由新兴的当地STEM行业和研究生院的专业人士组成的STEM咨询委员会将帮助学生为大学毕业后的职业和机会做好准备。WSSS计划将为那些可能无法负担或无法在大学取得成功的优秀STEM学生提供获得一流教育的机会，为他们进入高薪职业做好准备。WSSS计划将对低收入家庭的学生进行推广和招募，包括密尔沃基学校中代表性不足的人群以及在家上学的学生。该计划将实施夏季STEM方向，为即将入学的学者提供研究经验，第一年的STEM研究入门课程，继续研究机会，加强指导和职业网络机会。这些活动建立在支持早期研究经验作为STEM学生成功的积极因素的证据之上。他们还展示了相关的同伴指导、研究同伴小组、强大的师生互动和研究技能培养研讨会如何共同努力，将不同的学生融入大学的研究和学术文化，并通过增强对能力和自我效能的信心来促进留用。WLC将调查这些活动，以检查它们对入学和保留、毕业和研究生安置率的影响。WSSS计划将通过招聘活动加强科学部门与招生办公室、高中和家庭学校网络的关系。该项目还将通过建立一个基于行业的STEM咨询委员会来发展与行业的联系。这将有助于加强多元化和代表性不足的学生从中学教育到本科课程，并进入区域STEM劳动力的渠道。项目团队还将向WLC自然科学以外的其他项目传播研究结果，并为其他机构复制项目活动提供证据。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。

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Throughout its five years, this project will fund 14 scholarships for two groups of seven students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, or marine biology. Small colleges often have excellent and thriving science programs that regularly graduate well-qualified students to enter graduate school or careers in a variety of STEM fields. Private colleges with intimate class sizes and high-quality faculty and facilities require greater fees to maintain these features, putting them out of reach of many low-income students. In addition, rigorous introductory STEM courses prepare students well for more specialized upper level courses and future careers but have relatively high attrition rates. The WLC S-STEM Scholars (WSSS) Program will address these issues by providing scholarship aid and early research opportunities to help students navigate through introductory STEM courses. Partnerships with local high schools, homeschool associations, and college-prep programs will provide excellent candidates from diverse backgrounds. The WSSS Program hopes to adapt STEM education research performed at large research universities to a small liberal arts college. The program will introduce students to STEM laboratory research early in their education and maintain this exposure throughout their undergraduate careers. This will put concepts and practices from STEM courses into perspective, will increase one-on-one interactions with faculty and upperclassmen to establish better mentoring relationships, and will provide valuable experience for internship and career goals. Increased mentorship will ensure that program scholars are aware of and take advantage of resources such as tutoring, workshops, and career preparation opportunities. Finally, a STEM advisory council consisting of professionals from the burgeoning local STEM industry and graduate schools will help to prepare students for careers and opportunities after college. The WSSS Program will give superior STEM students that may not be able to otherwise afford or succeed in college the opportunity to get a first-class education to prepare them to enter a well-paying career.The WSSS Program will implement outreach and recruitment to low-income students including underrepresented populations in Milwaukee schools as well as homeschooled students. The program will implement a summer STEM orientation to provide research experiences to incoming scholars, a first-year Introduction to STEM Research course, continuing research opportunities, enhanced mentoring, and career networking opportunities. These activities build on and advance evidence in support of early research experience as a positive factor in STEM student success. They also show how associated peer mentoring, research peer groups, strong student-faculty interactions, and research skill-building workshops work together to integrate diverse students into a college research and academic culture and promote retention through increased confidence in abilities and self-efficacy. WLC will investigate these activities to examine their impact on enrollment and retention, graduation, and postgraduate placement rates. The WSSS program will strengthen the science departments' relationship with the Office of Admissions, high schools, and homeschool networks through recruitment activities. The program will also develop ties with industry through the creation of an industry-based STEM Advisory Council. This will contribute to a stronger pipeline of diverse and underrepresented students from secondary education through undergraduate programming and into the regional STEM workforce. The project team will also disseminate the results to other programs at WLC outside of the natural sciences and will generate evidence to assist other institutions in replicating program activities.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.