Supporting Retention and Graduation in STEM by Building Undergraduate Student's STEM Identity and Cultural Capital

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。具体地说，它将支持玛丽维尔学院STEM本科生的教育，使他们做好准备，满足田纳西技术走廊对STEM员工的高需求。超过一半的玛丽维尔学生来自低收入家庭，这一群体的STEM保留率明显低于他们更富裕的同龄人。因此，该项目预计将对玛丽维尔学院的STEM保留率和毕业率产生广泛的积极影响。在五年的时间里，这个项目将为18名攻读生物、生物化学、化学、数学和/或计算机科学学士学位的学生提供为期四年的奖学金。该项目旨在增加学者和其他低收入STEM专业的STEM留校率，提高低收入STEM专业的STEM认同感和文化资本，并为STEM学生为劳动力或研究生课程做好准备。项目活动包括暑期体验、第一年STEM投资组合课程，以及诸如指导、辅导、领导机会和职业准备等综合支持。该项目旨在培养学生的STEM认同感，并在校园范围内促进STEM成功的可见和有效的文化。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。项目活动将在学者四年的学术生涯中支持增加准备和集中的学术、专业和社会支持。尽管身份认同与STEM和文化资本相关的重要性对于代表性不足的STEM学生来说已经被记录在案，但文献没有讨论在本科文科学院为低收入学生提供集中和协调的STEM支持的有效性。一项研究将考察学者和其他STEM学生与STEM相关的个人身份的发展，项目活动如何支持STEM参与和学习，以及计算机编程在多大程度上成为学院的文化资本。评估将确定项目要素对学者和其他STEM学生的留住、毕业和职业安置的影响，并将产生可用于支持持续规划和转移到类似机构的证据。传播将通过在线平台、出版物和与类似文科学院的会议进行。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, it will support the education of STEM undergraduates at Maryville College, preparing them to meet the high demand for STEM employees in the Tennessee Technology Corridor. More than half of Maryville students are from low-income families, a population with significantly lower rates of STEM retention than their more affluent peers. As a result, the project is anticipated to have broad positive impact on STEM retention and graduation rates at Maryville College. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 18 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, math, and/or computer science. The project aims to increase retention in STEM for both Scholars and other low-income STEM majors, improve STEM identity and cultural capital in low-income STEM majors, and prepare STEM students for the workforce or graduate programs. Project activities include a summer experience, first-year STEM portfolio course, and integrated supports such as mentoring, tutoring, leadership opportunities, and career preparation. Cohort-based activities will be designed to develop students' STEM identity and promote a visible and effective campus-wide culture of STEM success.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Project activities will support increased preparation and centralized academic, professional, and social supports throughout Scholars' four-year academic career. Although the importance of identity in relation to STEM and cultural capital has been documented for underrepresented STEM students, the literature does not address the efficacy of centralized and coordinated STEM supports for low-income students at an undergraduate liberal arts college. A research study will examine the development of Scholars' and other STEM students' personal identities related to STEM, how the project activities support STEM engagement and learning, and the extent that computer programming becomes cultural capital at the College. The evaluation will determine the impact of program elements on the retention, graduation, and career placement of both Scholars and other STEM students and will generate evidence that can be used to support sustained programming and transferability to similar institutions. Dissemination will occur through online platforms, publications, and meetings with similar liberal arts colleges. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.