Increasing Undergraduate STEM Success through Scholarships and Support Services

通过奖学金和支持服务提高本科生 STEM 成功率

• 批准号: 2027796
• 负责人: Kathryn Bell
• 金额: $ 99.97万
• 依托单位: Salt Lake Community College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-15 至 2025-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2027796&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Undergraduate; STEM; Success; through

This project will contribute to the national need for highly capable scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). SLCC is Utah's largest, most diverse college serving more than 60,000 students at multiple campuses and in online classes. This project focuses on supporting academically talented, economically challenged students seeking STEM degrees, transfer to university programs, or entry into the STEM workforce. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide one- or two-year scholarships to 91 students in Life Science, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Geoscience, Math, and Physics degree programs. It will also provide one-year scholarships to enable students to complete their STEM degrees. The project will have immediate positive benefits on Scholars by providing financial and other support and services. It will also have longer-term benefits, by enabling graduates to earn higher wages associated with STEM degree completion. In addition, companies that hire these graduates will be able to grow their businesses and increase their local economic impact. The project builds on known best practices for student degree completion by providing social, academic, and financial services. By increasing the number of STEM graduates who are ready for both employment and transfer opportunities, the project is directly aligned with Utah’s economic growth and transformation goals.The goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in Salt Lake County. SLCC will draw on its extensive network of relationships with high schools and college partners to recruit students into STEM programs. A multi-disciplinary selection team will review applications and select participants. The scholarship program will work closely with the existing TRIO STEM Student Support Services program to provide Scholars with services, including faculty mentoring, focused advising, opportunities for undergraduate research and other scholarly work, transfer assistance to baccalaureate programs, career placement services, and a supportive social network. Over five years, SLCC will provide 56 incoming students with two-year scholarships to enroll in a STEM degree program. In addition, the project will provide one-year scholarships to approximately 35 “Near Completers” who are close to completion but need support to finish a STEM degree. The expected outcome of the project is to retain over 90% of participants though graduation, transfer to university programs, or entry into the STEM workforce. This project emphasizes involving SLCC students in high-quality undergraduate research projects that are typically absent from the experience of community college students. Such research experience is clearly demonstrated to be a high impact practice for motivating students to continue and complete STEM degrees. The project will use a novel intensive writing experience to investigate conditions under which improved participation in research projects occurs. The results of this approach will advance understanding about what works for promoting successful STEM completion. Project activities and outcomes will be of significant interest to all colleges offering STEM degree programs. As a result, the project will disseminate its work in peer-reviewed journals specializing in undergraduate STEM education. 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.

该项目将通过支持在盐湖社区学院(SLCC)表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入学生，为国家对高能力科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。SLCC是犹他州最大、最多样化的大学，在多个校区和在线课程中为超过6万名学生提供服务。该项目的重点是支持有学术天赋、经济困难的学生寻求STEM学位、转学到大学课程或进入STEM劳动力大军。在五年的时间里，该项目将为91名生命科学、化学、计算机科学、工程、地球科学、数学和物理学位课程的学生提供一到两年的奖学金。它还将提供为期一年的奖学金，使学生能够完成STEM学位。通过提供财政和其他支持和服务，该项目将立即为学者们带来积极的好处。它还将带来更长期的好处，使毕业生能够获得与STEM学位完成相关的更高工资。此外，雇用这些毕业生的公司将能够发展他们的业务，并增加他们在当地的经济影响力。该项目通过提供社会、学术和金融服务，建立在已知的学生学位完成最佳实践的基础上。通过增加准备好就业和转移机会的STEM毕业生的数量，该项目直接与犹他州的经济增长和转型目标保持一致。该项目的目标是提高盐湖县低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位毕业率。SLCC将利用其与高中和大学合作伙伴的广泛关系网络来招收学生参加STEM项目。一个由多学科组成的遴选小组将审查申请并挑选参与者。奖学金计划将与现有的Trio STEM学生支持服务计划密切合作，为学者提供服务，包括教师指导、重点建议、本科生研究和其他学术工作的机会、向学士学位课程转移援助、就业安置服务和支持性社交网络。在五年的时间里，SLCC将为56名新生提供两年期奖学金，让他们进入STEM学位项目。此外，该项目将向大约35名即将完成学业但需要支持才能完成STEM学位的“接近完成者”提供为期一年的奖学金。该项目的预期结果是，在毕业、转到大学课程或进入STEM劳动力大军期间，留住90%以上的参与者。这个项目强调让SLCC的学生参与高质量的本科生研究项目，而这些项目通常是社区学院学生经验中所没有的。这种研究经验显然是激励学生继续攻读和完成STEM学位的一种高影响力的做法。该项目将使用一种新颖的密集写作经验来调查提高研究项目参与度的条件。这一方法的结果将促进对促进STEM成功完成的作用的理解。项目活动和成果将对所有提供STEM学位课程的大学产生重大影响。因此，该项目将在专门研究本科生STEM教育的同行评议期刊上传播其工作。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。