Enhancing Recruitment and Retention of Undergraduate Mathematics and Computer Science Scholars

该项目将通过支持表现出经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，满足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（Kutztown University）领导，这是一所中等规模的地区性综合性公立大学，位于宾夕法尼亚州的农村。该项目为期五年，将为20名攻读数学、计算机科学和信息技术学士学位的独特全日制学生提供奖学金。学者们将分成两组一年级学生，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（如生活学习社区、教师和行业导师、本科研究经历、研究生院和职业准备以及参加特定学科会议）联系起来，提高学生在这些STEM领域的坚持度。该项目将产生关于招收和留住学生的重要新知识，包括来自这些领域代表性不足的群体的学者。这些信息可以促进国家对多样化STEM专业劳动力的需求。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。除了奖学金之外，该项目还将为学者提供一系列通过以前的项目开发和完善的支持服务。该项目将扩展其先前的工作，解决研究文献中关于如何支持招收和留住数学、计算机科学和信息技术专业的低收入学生的空白，包括来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生。混合方法将用于调查学者和教师对数学和计算机科学本科专业的招聘和保留的途径和障碍的看法。知识生成活动还包括对具体支持服务（包括生活-学习社区、教师指导和有针对性的活动）在保留代表性不足的学者方面与同龄人相比的差异有效性的调查。这些新知识具有可转移和适用于其他同等规模的机构的潜力，这可以进一步多样化和加强国家的STEM劳动力。外部评估人员将从上下文、输入、过程和产品的角度评估项目。项目结果将通过期刊出版物、在区域和地方会议上的发言、大众传播媒介以及与地方教育机构的伙伴关系来传播。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. 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.