Scholarships, Mentoring, and Career Development to Support Attainment of Software Engineering Graduate Degrees

该项目将通过支持在中央康涅狄格州立大学（Central Connecticut State University）有经济需要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。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读软件工程硕士学位的全日制和非全日制学生提供奖学金。根据需要，学者将获得最多一年的先决课程奖学金，以及最多两年的全日制学位或最多三年的半日制学位奖学金。项目活动将集中于维持工程研究生的三种策略：招聘、指导和支持以及职业发展。该项目旨在吸引具有广泛STEM经验的学者，为他们提供一个独特的机会，将他们的跨学科背景与软件工程研究结合起来。招收学者将创造一个支持性的环境，支持学者的学业成功，保留和及时毕业。该项目建立在大学之前成功的S-STEM项目的基础上，该项目建立了一个功能良好的学生支持基础设施。它还建立在教师和工作人员在这些先前项目中的经验基础上，结合和改进迄今为止学到的经验教训。通过支持来自非传统和跨学科背景的低收入高成就研究生获得高级学位，该项目具有增加软件行业劳动力多样性的潜力，并有助于解决全国软件专业人员短缺的问题。该项目将支持课程和课外活动的研究、实施和评估，以提高低收入学术天才研究生的学业成就。提议的策略与高等教育的现有实践是一致的，这些实践导致了低收入学生的成功坚持，包括那些历史上代表性不足的群体。该项目将有助于解决一个未被充分研究的研究问题，即作为软件工程专业人员的身份水平与学术上有才华的低收入研究生的毕业率之间的关系。研究小组将采用混合方法，收集定量和定性数据，并将采用两轮数据收集计划。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 Central Connecticut State University. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing master’s degrees in Software Engineering. Scholars will receive scholarship support for up to one year of prerequisite coursework, as needed, and up to two years to complete the degree on a full-time basis or up to three years on a half-time basis. Project activities will focus on three strategies for sustaining engineering graduate students: recruitment, mentoring and support, and career development. The project will be designed to attract Scholars with a broad range of STEM experiences and offer them a unique opportunity to combine their interdisciplinary background with the study of software engineering. Admitting Scholars as cohorts will create a supportive environment that supports Scholars’ academic success, retention, and timely graduation. This project builds upon successful prior S-STEM projects at the University, which established a well-functioning student support infrastructure. It also builds upon the faculty and staff experience in these previous projects, incorporating and improving upon the lessons learned so far. By supporting advanced degree attainment of low-income high achieving graduate students from non-traditional and interdisciplinary backgrounds, the project has the potential to increase workforce diversity in the software industry and help to address the national shortage of software professionals.The project will support the study, implementation, and evaluation of curricular and co-curricular activities leading to the improved academic success of low-income academically talented graduate students. The proposed strategies are consistent with existing practices in higher education leading to the successful persistence of low-income students, including those from historically underrepresented groups. The project will help address an under-studied research question regarding the relationship between the level of identity as a software engineering professional and graduation rates for academically talented, low income graduate students. The research team will use a mixed-methods approach that will collect both quantitative and qualitative data and will employ a two-round data collection plan. 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.