Supporting Graduation of Undergraduate STEM Majors Through Scholarships, Mentoring, and Activities That Develop Students' Academic and Scientific Identity

通过奖学金、辅导和培养学生学术和科学身份的活动支持本科 STEM 专业毕业

• 批准号: 1930076
• 负责人: Tamara Hamilton
• 金额: $ 65万
• 依托单位: Barry University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1930076&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Supporting; Graduation; Undergraduate; STEM; Majors

This project will contribute to the national need for highly skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Barry University. The project will provide four-year scholarships to a single cohort of up to 15 students. These Scholars will pursue Bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer information science, computer science, or mathematics. Scholars will engage in activities to help them develop a greater sense of belonging. One of these activities is a summer bridge program that includes developmental courses and community-building activities. In addition, Scholars will have support from peer mentors and faculty who are trained in practices that help students develop a greater sense of belonging at the University and in STEM. The project will maintain industry and workforce partnerships to provide Scholars with pathways into STEM careers. The project includes an assessment plan to measure how well the activities have improved the student experience at Barry University, which is a minority-serving institution where more than 30% of students are first-generation, and up to 60% receive Federal need-based loans. Previous studies have been done of similar activities at highly selective universities. The studies show that these support activities can reduce the gap in academic outcomes between students with higher and lower financial need. Understanding whether the same effects can be achieved at Barry University can guide efforts by other institutions to increase recruitment, retention, student success, and graduation rates of students with financial need.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims are to: 1) recruit at least twenty low-income students with academic potential from Title I high schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to the Summer Bridge Program; 2) award twelve to fifteen scholarships to students who demonstrate academic achievement, persistence, and engagement; 3) train faculty and peer mentors in practices shown to have positive outcomes for students with low-socio-economic status (low-SES); 4) implement a learning community that encourages engagement through evidence-based approaches proven to improve the university climate for low-SES students; 5) provide Scholars with STEM-engagement opportunities, career and research internships, and connections to industry; and 6) achieve retention, graduation, and placement benchmarks (80% retention; 60% four-year graduation; 80% of Scholars in STEM jobs or advanced education within a year of graduation). The project team will use a mixed-methods approach to examine the effectiveness of the interventions at improving achievement, well-being, and retention of STEM students from low-income backgrounds at a minority-serving institution. The results of the study, along with iterative evaluations of programming, can help to improve the success of this student population nationwide, thereby contributing to a diverse, highly trained, globally competitive STEM workforce. 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.

这个项目将有助于满足国家对高技能科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。它将通过支持巴里大学表现出经济需要的成绩优异的低收入学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。该项目将为最多15名学生提供为期四年的奖学金。这些学者将攻读生物学、化学、计算机信息科学、计算机科学或数学的学士学位。学生们会参加一些活动，帮助他们培养更大的归属感。其中一项活动是夏季桥梁项目，包括发展课程和社区建设活动。此外，学者们将得到同行导师和教师的支持，他们接受过实践培训，帮助学生在大学和STEM领域培养更大的归属感。该项目将保持行业和劳动力伙伴关系，为学者提供进入STEM职业的途径。该项目包括一项评估计划，以衡量这些活动在多大程度上改善了巴里大学（Barry University）的学生体验。巴里大学是一所为少数族裔服务的大学，超过30%的学生是第一代学生，高达60%的学生获得了联邦政府基于需求的贷款。以前的研究是针对一些顶尖大学的类似活动进行的。研究表明，这些支持活动可以缩小经济需求较高和较低的学生在学业成绩上的差距。了解巴里大学是否能达到同样的效果，可以指导其他机构努力提高有经济需要的学生的招生、留校率、学生成功率和毕业率。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体目标是：1)招收至少20名来自迈阿密-戴德县和布劳沃德县一级高中的有学术潜力的低收入家庭学生参加暑期桥项目；2)向表现出学术成就、坚持不懈和投入的学生颁发12至15个奖学金；3)对教师和同伴导师进行实践培训，这些实践对低社会经济地位（low-SES）的学生有积极的影响；4)建立一个学习社区，鼓励学生通过基于证据的方法参与学习，这些方法已被证明可以改善低经济地位学生的大学氛围；5)为学者提供stem参与机会，职业和研究实习机会，以及与行业的联系；6)达到保留率、毕业率和安置基准（保留率80%；四年制毕业率60%；80%的学者在毕业一年内从事STEM工作或高等教育）。项目团队将使用混合方法来检查干预措施在提高少数民族服务机构低收入背景的STEM学生的成就，福祉和保留方面的有效性。这项研究的结果，以及对编程的反复评估，可以帮助提高全国学生群体的成功，从而为培养一支多样化、训练有素、具有全球竞争力的STEM劳动力做出贡献。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。