Fostering Student Success and Diversity in STEM by Combining Scholarship Support with Mentoring and Research Engagement

该项目将通过支持Prairie View A&amp；M大学表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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。Prairie View a&m University是一所历史悠久的黑人学院/大学，以服务于德克萨斯州经济弱势和服务不足的人口而闻名。该项目为期五年，将为20名攻读生物、化学、物理或数学学士学位的学生提供四年奖学金。该项目旨在通过将这些奖学金与有效的支持活动（如队伍建设、本科生研究经历、指导、研究生院准备和参加特定学科会议）联系起来，提高学生的入学率、保留率和持久性，并提高四年毕业率。在这样做的过程中，该机构正在采取一种全面的方法，为学生进入劳动力市场成为生物学家、化学家、物理学家或数学家做好准备。由于Prairie View A&amp；M大学有大量未被充分代表的学生，该项目将扩大未被充分代表的少数民族在STEM领域的参与。此外，该项目将促进对有效的循证战略和活动的理解，这些战略和活动促进了学生在STEM中的参与和成功。该项目的总体目标是提高Prairie View A&amp；M大学低收入，成绩优异且有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。三个目标指导着这个项目。首先，增加生物、化学、物理和数学等STEM学科的入学人数。第二，通过让学生参与多维指导计划，提高3年的留校率和4年的毕业率。第三，创建一个跨学科的知识学习社区，促进项目学者进入STEM研究生课程或进入STEM劳动力。该项目还将通过使用“交叉性”作为理论方法，研究群体建设、指导和研究参与在促进STEM学生保留/坚持和高毕业率方面的作用。特别是，该项目将提供一个经验丰富的视角，了解如何满足STEM学生的需求，这些学生一次表现出不止一种主要身份状态；社会地位一种包含多重同等权重标志的地位，如社会经济地位、性别和种族此外，将开发一个基于经验和适应性的促进学生成功的模型，该模型是动态的，可推广的，并可转移到传统的黑人学院和大学以及其他高等教育机构。将采用混合方法对这个项目进行评估。定性评估将决定指导、研究经验和群体建设的有效性，以增加STEM学生的入学率、保留率/持久性和提高毕业率。反过来，这些定性方法将为随后的定量评估提供信息。该项目的结果将通过各种媒体传播，包括项目网站、社交媒体、教育期刊出版物、会议演讲和外展活动。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 Prairie View A&M University. Prairie View A&M University is an historically black college/university with a reputation of serving the economically disadvantaged and underserved population of Texas. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to twenty students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Mathematics. This project aims to increase student enrollment, retention, and persistence and improve 4-year graduation rates by linking these scholarships with effective supporting activities, such as cohort-building, undergraduate research experiences, mentoring, graduate school preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. In so doing, the institution is taking a holistic approach to preparing its students for entrance into the workforce as a biologist, chemist, physicist or mathematician. As Prairie View A&M University has a high population of underrepresented students, this project will broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. Additionally, this project will advance understanding of effective evidence-based strategies and activities that promote student participation and success in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need at Prairie View A&M University. Three objectives guide the project. First, to increase enrollment in the STEM disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. Second, to improve 3-year retention/persistence figures and 4-year graduation rates by engaging students in a multidimensional mentorship program. Third, to create a cross-discipline intellectual learning community that promotes advancement of project scholars to a STEM graduate program or into the STEM workforce. This project will also examine the role(s) of cohort-building, mentoring, and research engagement in fostering STEM student retention/persistence and high graduation rates, through the use of "intersectionality" as a theoretical approach. In particular, this project will provide an empirically informed perspective on how to meet the needs of STEM students who manifest more than a single primary identity status at a time; a status that embraces multiple equally weighted markers, such as socio-economic status, gender, and ethnicity. Additionally, an empirically-based and adaptable model for promoting student success will be developed that is dynamic, generalizable, and transferable to historically black colleges and universities, and other post-secondary institutions. Evaluation of this project will be performed, using a mixed-methods approach. Qualitative assessments will determine the effectiveness of mentoring, research experiences, and cohort building on increased enrollment, retention/persistence, and improved graduation rates of STEM students. In turn these qualitative methodologies will inform subsequent quantitative assessments. Results of this project will be disseminated through a variety of media, including a project website, social media, education journal publications, conference presentations and outreach activities. 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.