Supporting Undergraduate STEM Degree Completion Through a Learning Community/Cohort Model that Develops Belonging, Mindset, and Purpose

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进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。 在五年的时间里，该项目将支持萨凡纳州立大学的30名学生，这是一所历史上的黑人学院/大学。 两批15名学生将获得为期四年的奖学金，攻读自然科学，数学和STEM技术的学士学位。通过将奖学金与早期支持和社区建设联系起来，该项目旨在通过建立学生的学术心态，目的和在STEM中的归属感，提高学生在STEM专业的坚持和毕业。该项目将实施一个学习社区/队列模型，以吸引STEM和大学社区内的学者。 这些有意吸引学者的努力将从他们大学一年级开始开始，一直持续到毕业。学习社群活动将包括共享课程、霍尔斯、自修霍尔斯、辅导、工作坊和社交活动。 个性化的活动，以提供个人支持将包括早期沉浸在干课程，辅导，侵入式教学，本科研究经验，并在特定学科的会议参与。在导师的指导下，学生将制定个人发展计划，概述他们的职业目标和实现这些目标的必要步骤。由于萨凡纳州立大学90%以上的学生来自代表性不足的群体，该项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与，并了解早期基于队列的干预措施如何支持这一学生群体的保留和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就本科生在STEM领域的学位完成率。有两个具体目标：1）招募，保留和支持30名有经济需求的学术人才; 2）开发一个学术支持计划，该计划已通过对计划成果和研究结果的评估进行验证。虽然第一年学习社区和早期参与的有效性已经确立，但人们对这些做法如何在STEM学生中建立归属感，目的和富有成效的心态知之甚少，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的学生。该项目将建立在大学与格鲁吉亚大学系统协调努力的初步数据的基础上，该系统的“完整的大学格鲁吉亚势头年倡议”侧重于第一年的课程改革，以提高本科保留率和毕业率。该项目将衡量30名学者的学术和课外里程碑和成果对计划目标，以及学者的心态，目的和归属感的增长。 学者的研究结果将与随机选择的具有相似特征的非学者对照组进行比较。该项目的成果将通过学术出版物以及地方、区域和国家报告提供。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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价值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. Over its five-year duration, the project will support 30 students at Savannah State University, a Historically Black College/University. Two cohorts of 15 students will receive four-year scholarships to pursue baccalaureate STEM degrees in natural sciences, mathematics, and STEM technology. By linking scholarships with early support and community building, the project aims to increase student persistence and graduation in their STEM major through building students' academic mindset, purpose, and belonging within STEM. The project will implement a Learning Community/Cohort Model to engage Scholars within the STEM and University communities. These intentional efforts to engage Scholars will begin in their first-year of college and continue through graduation. Learning community activities will include shared classes, residence halls, study halls, tutoring, workshops, and social activities. Personalized activities to provide individual support will include early immersion in STEM courses, mentoring, intrusive advisement, undergraduate research experiences, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. With guidance from mentors, the students will develop Personal Development Plans outlining their career goals and the necessary steps to achieve those goals. Because more than 90% of students at Savannah State University are from underrepresented groups, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how early cohort-based interventions support retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. There are two specific objectives: 1) recruit, retain, and support 30 academically talented students with demonstrated financial need; and 2) develop an academic support program that has been validated by evaluation of program outcomes and findings from the research study. While the efficacy of First-year Learning Communities and Early Engagement are well established, less is known about how these practices build belonging, purpose, and a productive mindset in STEM students, including those from underrepresented groups. The project will build on preliminary data from University's coordinated efforts with the University System of Georgia's "Complete College Georgia Momentum Year Initiative," which focuses on first-year curricular reforms to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates. The project will measure the 30 scholars' academic and extracurricular milestones and outcomes against program objectives, and growth in the scholars' mindset, purpose, and belonging. The Scholars' results will be compared to a randomly selected control group of non-Scholars who have similar characteristics. Results of this project will be made available through scholarly publications, as well as local, regional, and national presentations. 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.