Scholarships, Services, and a Framework of Programmatic Belonging Cues to Improve Undergraduate Student Success in Engineering Majors

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。具体来说，密歇根州荷兰霍普学院的这个项目将为15名学生提供四年奖学金，并提供服务，以支持四年工程学位学者的招聘，保留和毕业。学生将通过该计划在两个队列的进展，八个学生在该奖项的第一年开始，并在该奖项的第二年开始的七个学生的第二队列之一。在他们的头两个学年，学生将得到指导，并参加活动，如队列建设，补充教学，职业发展机会，以及以职业为重点的多样性和包容性研讨会系列。这套集中的干预措施，预计将导致强大的队列发展，这与持续周到的教师指导相结合，预计将有助于学生毕业的持久性。该计划的学生将参加早期研究或实习机会，这将有助于解决区域雇主的就业需求。该计划旨在通过一个易于转移到其他机构的框架来提高学生的保留率。这个框架包括纵向的，集中的归属线索整合到每个学生的学术规划。归属暗示是简短、简单的活动，唤起学生的归属感。 例子包括突出成功的工程师谁是第一代或从低社会经济背景，并提供当前的学生与前学生的信息，他们成功地过渡到大学和坚持通过逆境。 研究问题将调查，如果定期应用这种程序的归属线索在较长的时间内导致动机和归属感的持久改善，从而提高GPA和学生的保留。定性和定量的方法将被用来确定程序目标的实现水平，并评估学生的归属感和支持的感觉，因为它涉及到他们的持久性。自决理论是一个在各种情况下使用的公认理论，将作为评价的理论框架。 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. Specifically, this project at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, will provide 15 students with four-year scholarships and with services to support recruitment, retention, and graduation of the Scholars with four-year engineering degrees. Students will progress through the program in two cohorts, one of eight students beginning in the first year of the award and a second cohort of seven students beginning in the second year of the award. During their first two academic years, students will be mentored and participate in activities such as cohort building, supplemental instruction, career development opportunities, and a vocation-focused diversity and inclusion seminar series. This focused set of interventions is expected to lead to strong cohort development, which, when combined with continued attentive faculty mentoring, is expected to aid in the persistence of students to graduation. Students in the program will participate in early research or internship opportunities that will help to address employment needs of regional employers. The program aims to increase the retention of students through a framework that is easily transferable to other institutions. This framework includes longitudinal, focused integration of belonging cues into each student’s academic programming. Belonging cues are short, simple activities that invoke students’ sense of belonging. Examples include highlighting successful engineers who were first-generation or from low socioeconomic backgrounds and providing current students with messages from former students about their successful transition to college and persistence through adversity. Research questions will investigate if regular application of such programmatic belonging cues over an extended period leads to lasting improvement in motivation and sense of belonging that results in increased GPA and student retention. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to determine the attainment level of program objectives and to assess a student’s sense of belonging and feelings of support as it relates to their persistence. Self-determination theory, a well-established theory used in various contexts, will serve as the theoretical framework for the evaluation. 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.