Scholarship Opportunities Aimed at Retaining Science Scholars

该项目将通过支持路易斯安那州立大学（一所由土地、海洋和空间资助的研究型大学）保留和毕业表现出经济需要的优秀低收入学生，从而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。该项目将在五年内为攻读生物科学、化学、生物化学、微生物学、数学、物理、地质学和/或数学学士学位的20名学生提供奖学金。学者将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。除了奖学金，学者们还将获得支持系统，这些支持系统将指导他们的学术和社会融入科学和大学文化，并帮助他们建立成功进入科学或数学职业所需的智力和社会资本。拟议项目的智力价值在于使用基于证据的实践来支持学者的整体发展，以增加学术成功和科学坚持。更广泛的影响包括越来越多的准备充分和多样化的毕业生进入STEM劳动力或研究生院。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。该项目将专注于三个目标：1)加强和推进基于证据的课程和课外实践的综合生态系统，以提高低收入、有学术天赋的学生的入学率、持久性和成功度；2)调查高影响、循证保留和学生成功实践对低收入、学业有天赋的学生的影响；3)通过提高教职员工支持低收入家庭学生的意识和信心，促进生态系统的可持续性。该项目的研究将侧重于低收入人群中不同交叉身份之间的社会代理，使用定量和定性方法。这些结果将为机构政策和实践提供信息，这些政策和实践可以促进学生在位于美国南部地区的研究型大学的坚持。该项目有可能加强科学教育，为STEM劳动力做出贡献，并为实践提供新的见解，以促进科学和数学学位课程本科生的成功。该项目的结果将在会议和同行评议的研究期刊上传播。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 at Louisiana State University, a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university. Over five years, this project will provide scholarships to 20 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biological sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, mathematics, physics, geology and/or mathematics. Scholars will receive up to four years of scholarship support. In addition to scholarships, Scholars will have access to support systems that will guide their academic and social integration into scientific and university culture, and help them build the intellectual and social capital needed to successfully enter a science or math career. The intellectual merit of the proposed project lies in the use of evidence-based practices for supporting the holistic development of the Scholars for increased academic success and science persistence. The broader impacts include an increased number of well-prepared and diverse graduates who enter the STEM workforce or graduate school. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will focus on three objectives: 1) Enhance and advance a comprehensive ecosystem of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular practices to increase the recruitment, persistence, and success of low-income, academically-talented students; 2) Investigate the effect of high-impact, evidence-based retention and student success practices on an intersectional population of low-income, academically talented students; and 3) Promote ecosystem sustainability by increasing faculty and staff awareness and confidence in supporting students from low-income backgrounds. The project's research study will focus on social agency among diverse intersectional identities within a low-income population, using quantitative and qualitative methods. These results will inform institutional policies and practices that can promote student persistence at a research university located in the southern region of the United States. This project has the potential to strengthen science education, contribute to the STEM workforce, and provide new insights into practices to promote the success of undergraduates in science and math degree programs. The results of the project will be disseminated at conferences and in peer-reviewed research journals. 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.