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

该项目将通过支持表现出经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，满足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。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将支持萨凡纳州立大学的30名学生，萨凡纳州立大学是一所历史悠久的黑人学院/大学。两组15名学生将获得四年奖学金，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、目标和对STEM的归属感，提高学生在STEM专业的坚持度和毕业率。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，一直持续到毕业。学习社区活动将包括共享课程、宿舍、自习室、辅导、研讨会和社会活动。提供个人支持的个性化活动将包括早期沉浸在STEM课程、指导、侵入式建议、本科研究经历以及参加学科特定会议。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，因此该项目有可能扩大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STEM领域低收入、高成就本科生的学位完成率。有两个具体目标：1)招收、留住和支持30名有学术天赋、有经济需要的学生；2)制定一项学术支持计划，该计划已通过评估计划成果和研究结果得到验证。虽然第一年学习社区和早期参与的有效性已经得到了很好的确立，但人们对这些实践如何在STEM学生（包括那些来自代表性不足群体的学生）中建立归属感、目标和富有成效的心态知之甚少。该项目将建立在大学与佐治亚大学系统“完成佐治亚大学势头年倡议”协调努力的初步数据的基础上，该倡议侧重于第一年的课程改革，以提高本科生的保留率和毕业率。该项目将根据项目目标衡量30位学者的学术和课外里程碑和成果，以及学者的心态、目标和归属感的增长。学者的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、区域和国家的报告提供。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。

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.