Supporting Retention and Graduation of Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics Majors in Rural Central Louisiana

该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。它将通过支持路易斯安那州立大学亚历山大分校的优秀低收入学生留校和毕业来实现这一点，该大学是路易斯安那州中部唯一一所由州政府支持的本科院校。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为18名攻读生物、化学和数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。这些奖学金获得者将被分两批录取，并获得四年奖学金。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与经过验证的和创新的支持活动联系起来，增加学者在STEM领域的持久性，这些活动包括近同行、教员和专业指导、补充指导、早期预警干预途径、侧重于职业和人际技能的每月讲习班、生活/学习社区、早期本科研究接触、队列公共课程和专门的计算和写作课程，以及参加研究会议。在教师导师的帮助下，学者们将确定他们STEM教育旅程中的具体挑战、动机和成功之处。引入生物信息学、化学计量学和多元统计分析等高级计算课程，将使学者们对STEM内容有更深入的了解。该大学是该州种族最多元化的机构之一：大约30%的学生是第一代大学生，65%的学生需要联邦、州和/或机构的援助。因此，这个项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与，并增加关于如何改善低收入、高成就STEM学生的教育结果的知识。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体目标包括：1)加强学生支持服务，以提高保留率和四年毕业率；2)建立和管理层级导师、研究机会和增强的就业服务，以提高STEM职业准备；以及3)建立数据监测系统，分析学生信息，以确定STEM学生的需求，并确定各种活动对他们成功的影响。该项目将实施以证据为基础的做法，以提高STEM的本科生毕业率，包括STEM入门课程的学术支持、财政援助、教师指导和创新课程。该项目旨在为学者们提供一个全面的支持服务计划和参与STEM的机会。除了加深对影响学生在STEM领域留校和毕业的挑战和动机的理解外，该项目还有可能培养出未来的STEM领导者，他们可以为路易斯安那州中部服务不足的农村地区的经济做出贡献。将使用形成性和总结性评估的数据对该项目进行评估。定性数据将使用比较技术进行分析，定量数据将使用参数检验进行分析。这些努力的结果将在地方和全国范围内传播，以造福于具有类似目标的其他机构。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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 highly skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, the only state-supported undergraduate institution in Central Louisiana. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 18 full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, and mathematics. These Scholars will be admitted in two cohorts and receive four-year scholarships. The project aims to increase persistence of the Scholars in STEM fields by linking scholarships with both proven and innovative supporting activities, including near-peer, faculty, and professional mentoring, supplemental instruction, early alert intervention pathways, monthly workshops focusing on career and interpersonal skills, a living/learning community, early undergraduate research exposure, cohort common coursework and specialized computational and writing courses, and participation in research conferences. With assistance of faculty mentors, the Scholars will identify specific challenges, motivations, and successes in their STEM education journey. The introduction of advanced computational courses such as bioinformatics, chemometrics, and multivariate statistical analysis will enable Scholars to gain a deeper understanding of STEM content. The University is one of the most racially diverse institutions in the state: about 30% of the student population are first-generation college students and 65% requiring federal, state, and/or institutional aid. As a result, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to increase knowledge about how to improve educational outcomes for low-income, high-achieving STEM students.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 include: 1) strengthening student support services to increase retention and four-year graduation rates; 2) establishing and administering tier-level mentorships, research opportunities, and enhanced career services to increase STEM career readiness; and 3) establishing a data monitoring system to analyze student information in order to identify STEM student needs and determine the impact of various activities on their success. The project will implement evidence-based practices for increasing undergraduate graduation in STEM, including academic support in introductory STEM courses, financial assistance, faculty mentorship, and innovative curriculum. This project aims to provide the Scholars with a holistic program of support services and opportunities for engagement in STEM. In addition to advancing understanding of challenges and motivations affecting students’ retention and graduation in STEM fields, this project has the potential to create future STEM leaders who can contribute to the economy of the underserved rural areas of Central Louisiana. The project will be evaluated using data from formative and summative assessments. Comparative techniques will be used to analyze qualitative data and parametric tests will be used to analyze quantitative data. The results of these efforts will be disseminated locally and nationally for the benefit of other institutions with similar goals. 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.