Providing Scholarship, Curricular, and Cocurricular Support to Increase Retention and Graduation of Residential and Commuter STEM Students

在美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金 (S-STEM) 计划的资助下，太平洋路德大学的这个项目将支持 28 名表现出经济需求和学术前景的优秀学生取得成功。 该项目将为 14 名正在攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、地球科学、数学或物理学学士学位的 STEM 学生提供四年期奖学金。另外十四名学生将参加所有项目活动，并在有空位时作为奖学金的替补。 该项目将建立一种基于证据的方法来支持课堂内外的低收入学生。 这种支持预计将增加学生的归属感，以及他们的保留和毕业，无论他们住在校园还是通勤到校园。除了提供学术支持结构和社区建设机会外，该项目还将由训练有素的 STEM 教师为参与的学生提供个人和小组指导。该项目旨在找出学生成功的障碍，并制定有效的干预措施，提高攻读 STEM 学位的学生的保留率，从而使 STEM 学生群体多样化。为了实现这些目标，该项目将通过以下方式支持学生：（1）通过使用循证教学法的链接课程进行课程参与； (2) 通过公共空间和社交活动的协作进行社区建设； (3) 有意义的指导经历。该项目将系统地评估学生成功的潜在障碍，以确定具有独特交叉身份的个别学生存在哪些障碍。 它将通过保留率和毕业率来衡量这些障碍对学生归属感和学业成功的影响。该项目将采用混合方法，包括定性和定量方法来衡量项目对学业成绩和情感领域（如学生动机、自信心和归属感）的影响，以及指导和教学实践的有效性。这项研究的结果应有助于了解小型文理学院的有效学生支持计划，这可能与其他高等教育机构相关。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project at Pacific Lutheran University will support the success of 28 high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise. The project will provide four-year scholarships to fourteen STEM students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, geoscience, mathematics, or physics. An additional fourteen students will participate in all project activities and serve as alternates for scholarships should space become available. This project will establish an evidence-based approach to support lower income students inside and outside of the classroom. This support is expected to increase the students' sense of belonging, as well as their retention and graduation, whether they live on or commute to campus. In addition to providing academic support structures and community-building opportunities, this project will also provide participating students with individual and small group mentoring by trained STEM faculty. This project seeks to identify barriers to student success and to develop effective interventions that will increase retention rates of students pursuing STEM degrees, thus diversifying the STEM student population. To achieve these objectives, the project will support students through: (1) curricular engagement via linked courses that use evidence-based pedagogies; (2) community building through collaboration in common spaces and social activities; and (3) meaningful mentorship experiences. The project will systematically assess potential barriers to student success to determine what barriers exist for individual students with unique intersecting identities. It will measure the impact of these barriers on students' sense of belonging and academic success, as measured by retention and graduation rates. The project will use a mixed-methods approach including both qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure the project's impact on academic achievement and affective domains such as student motivation, self-confidence, and sense of belonging, as well as the effectiveness of mentoring and pedagogical practices. The results of this study should contribute to understanding effective student support programs at small liberal arts colleges, which may be relevant to other institutions of higher education.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.