Enhancing Recruitment and Retention of Undergraduate Mathematics and Computer Science Scholars

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进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求。该项目将由库茨敦大学领导，这是一所位于宾夕法尼亚州农村的中型区域综合性公立大学。在五年的时间里，该项目将为20名攻读数学、计算机科学和信息技术学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将进入一年级学生的两个队列，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，如生活学习社区，教师和行业导师，本科生研究经验，研究生院和职业准备，以及参加特定学科的会议，来提高学生在这些STEM领域的坚持性。该项目将产生重要的新知识的招聘和保留的学生，包括学者谁是来自群体在这些领域的代表性不足。 这些信息可以促进国家对多元化STEM专业劳动力的需求。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。除了奖学金，该项目将为学者提供一套支持服务，这些服务是通过以前的项目开发和完善的。该项目将通过解决研究文献中的差距来扩展其先前的工作，这些文献涉及如何支持低收入学生在数学，计算机科学和信息技术课程中的招聘和保留，包括来自STEM代表性不足的人口的学生。混合的方法将被用来调查学者和教师的观点的途径和障碍，发生在招聘和保留数学和计算机科学本科专业。知识生成活动还包括对特定支持服务的差异有效性的调查，包括生活学习社区，教师指导和有针对性的活动，与同龄人相比，保留代表性不足的学者。这种新知识有可能在其他规模相当的机构中转移和应用，这可以进一步多样化和加强国家的STEM劳动力。外部评估员将从背景、输入、过程和产品角度评估项目。将通过期刊出版物、在区域和地方会议上的介绍、大众媒体以及与地方教育机构的伙伴关系传播项目结果。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. The project will be led by Kutztown University, a mid-sized, regional, comprehensive public university in rural Pennsylvania. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 20 unique, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, computer science, and information technology. Scholars will enter in two cohorts of first year students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase student persistence in these STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities such as a living-learning community, faculty and industry mentors, undergraduate research experiences, graduate school and career preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. The project will generate important new knowledge on the recruitment and retention of students, including Scholars who are from groups under-represented in these fields. This information can advance the national need for a diverse STEM professional workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. In addition to scholarships, the project will provide Scholars with a suite of support services that have been developed and refined through previous projects. This project will extend its prior work by addressing gaps in the research literature on ways to support the recruitment and retention of low income students in mathematics, computer science, and information technology programs, including students from populations that are under-represented in STEM. Mixed methods will be used to investigate Scholar and faculty perspectives on the pathways and obstacles that occur in the recruitment and retention of mathematics and computer science undergraduate majors. The knowledge generation activities also include an investigation of the differential effectiveness of specific support services, including a living-learning community, faculty mentoring, and targeted events, on the retention of underrepresented Scholars in comparison to their peers. This new knowledge has the potential to be transferable and applicable at other institutions of comparable size, which could further diversify and strengthen the nation’s STEM workforce. An external evaluator will evaluate the project from the context, input, process, and product perspectives. Project findings will be disseminated through journal publications, presentations at regional and local conferences, mass media, and partnerships with local educational agencies. 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.