Supporting Student Mental Health, Well-being, and Resilience to Advance Undergraduate Degree Completion in Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics

该项目将有助于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要，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在兰多夫学院证明经济需要的保留和毕业。 具体而言，该项目将为32名学生提供四年制奖学金和专门的支持服务，目标是招募，保留和毕业具有物理科学，工程或数学四年制学位的学生。学者将被录取，并通过两个队列的大学进展，与一个队列的16名学生进入秋季的第一和第二个奖项年。 该项目将以现有的学生服务为基础，增加专注于包容性，心理健康和弹性的编程，这些都是可以解决的问题，以提高STEM的保留率。 该项目强调将学生的心理健康和福祉结合起来，这是一种创新。 它将使用新颖的健康星期三节目，以支持学者的学术成功，社会健康和情绪健康贯穿全年。 通过关注学生健康，该项目有可能提高学生的学业成功和研究生课程和专业努力的进步，同时也提供了一个其他机构可以复制的模式。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的学生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。该项目将实施一套全面的活动和支持，包括：一个密集的夏季过渡计划，通过所有四个大学年的研讨会系列，在生活学习社区，同行，教师和行业指导中加强辅导服务，并加强获得实习和研究机会。 该项目的研究工作将侧重于积极主动的方法对学生健康和健康的影响，并打算确定什么是有效的，特别是在STEM中代表性不足的群体，包括妇女和LGBTQ个人。研究结果将与任何大学，特别是小型文理学院相关，并可能有助于指导增加STEM专业数量的努力，并支持他们适应四年制课程的要求。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 well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Randolph College. Specifically, the project will provide 32 students with four-year scholarships and specialized support services with the goal of recruiting, retaining, and graduating students with four-year degrees in a physical science, engineering, or mathematics. Scholars will be admitted and progress through college in two cohorts, with a cohort of 16 students entering in fall of the first and second award year. This project will build on existing student services, adding programming that focuses on inclusion, mental health, and resilience, which are identified as issues that can be addressed to increase retention in STEM. The emphasis of the project on integrating student mental health and well-being is innovative. It will use novel Wellness Wednesday programming to support Scholars’ academic success, social wellness, and emotional wellness throughout each year. By attending to student wellness, the project has the potential to enhance students’ academic success and advancement to graduate programs and professional endeavors, while also providing a model that other institutions may replicate.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need. The project will implement a comprehensive set of activities and supports including: an intensive summer transition program, a seminar series through all four college years, enhanced tutoring services in a Living-Learning Community, peer, faculty, and industry mentoring, and enhanced access to internships and research opportunities. The project’s research efforts will focus on the impact of a proactive approach to student health and wellness and intends to identify what works, especially with underrepresented groups in STEM, including women and LGBTQ individuals. The results will be relevant to any college, particularly small liberal arts colleges, and may be useful to guide efforts to increase the numbers of STEM majors and support them as they adjust to the demands of a four-year program. 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.