Increasing the Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation of STEM Undergraduate Student, with Emphasis on First-Generation College Students

该项目将有助于通过支持南达科他州矿业学校的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，满足国家对熟练科学家，工程师和技术人员的需求。 南达科他州矿业学院大约三分之一的一年级学生是第一代大学生。平均而言，这些第一代学生的坚持率远远低于父母在高等教育中有成功经验的学生。 虽然平均而言，大约50%的学院本科生在五年内获得学士学位，但只有大约24%的第一代学生这样做。 在五年的时间里，该项目将为至少35名攻读工程、科学或技术学士学位的全日制或非全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将分两批录取，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持。 该项目旨在帮助学者成功地导航高等教育系统从入学到毕业。学术和社会支助将从征聘时开始开始，包括由受过训练的导师提供指导。该项目预计，根据学生的人口统计，至少三分之一的学者将是第一代学生。 该项目将检验一个假设，即第一代STEM本科生的成功不受他们的兴趣或能力的限制，而是受复杂的高等教育体系本身的限制。此外，该项目预测，支持学者的能力，导航他们的大学经验将增加他们的坚持和毕业。 许多第一代本科生来自低收入，不同的背景。因此，该项目的更广泛影响来自其帮助增加STEM劳动力人才多样性的潜力。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目有三个具体目标：1）连接现有的校园学术资源，以提高学生的成功，特别是第一代学生; 2）通过创建一个学生，教师和工作人员的网络，加强学者的社会连接到校园学者信任;和3）提供基于需求的奖学金，以减轻经济负担，并允许学者优先考虑他们的教育。该项目活动旨在支持学者发展更大的情商，这将通过一个科学验证的工具来评估，该工具检查个人的社会和情感优势和弱点（EQ-i2.0）。 利用基于证据的弹性研究，该项目将实施与第一代学生特别相关的支持。据预测，该项目的研究结果将证明情绪智力的提高和保留/毕业率之间的正相关关系。 项目结果将通过出版物，会议演示，NSF S-STEM会议和项目特定网页在全国范围内传播。其中包括由一家私人咨询公司进行的形成性和总结性项目评价计划。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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 skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at South Dakota School of Mines. About a third of first-year students enrolled in the South Dakota School of Mines are first-generation college students. On average, these first-generation students persist at a much lower rate than students whose parents have had successful experiences in higher education. Although, on average, about 50% of the School’s undergraduate students earn bachelor’s degrees within five years, only about 24% of first-generation students do so. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to at least 35 different full- or part-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering, science, or technology. The Scholars will be admitted in two cohorts and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project intends to help the Scholars successfully navigate the higher education system from admission to graduation. Academic and social support will begin at recruitment and include mentoring by trained mentors. The project expects that, reflecting demographics of the student body, at least a third of the Scholars will be first-generation students. The project will test the hypothesis that the success of first-generation STEM undergraduates is not limited by their interests or ability, but by the complex higher education system itself. Furthermore, the project predicts that supporting Scholar’s ability to navigate their college experience will increase their persistence and graduation. Many first-generation undergraduates are from low income, diverse backgrounds. As a result, a significant broader impact of the project arises from its potential to help increase the diversity of talent in the STEM workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project has three specific aims: 1) connect existing campus academic resources to enhance student success, particularly of first-generation students; 2) bolster Scholars’ social connectivity to campus by creating a network of students, faculty, and staff that Scholars trust; and 3) provide need-based scholarships to relieve financial burden and allow Scholars to prioritize their education. The project activities are designed to support Scholars’ development of greater emotional intelligence, which will be assessed by a scientifically validated instrument that examines an individual’s social and emotional strengths and weaknesses (EQ-i2.0). Using evidence-based resiliency research, the project will implement supports that are particularly relevant to first-generation students. It is predicted that the project’s research findings will demonstrate a positive correlation between increases in emotional intelligence and retention/graduation rates. Project findings will be disseminated nationally through publications, conference presentations, NSF S-STEM meetings, and a project specific webpage. A plan is included for formative and summative project evaluation by a private consulting firm. 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.