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。具体来说，这个在密歇根州霍兰德市霍普学院（Hope College）的项目将为15名学生提供为期四年的奖学金，并为拥有四年制工程学位的奖学金获得者的招聘、留任和毕业提供支持服务。学生将分成两组，一组8名学生从第一年开始学习，另一组7名学生从第二年开始学习。在他们的前两个学年，学生将接受指导并参加一些活动，如队列建设、补充指导、职业发展机会，以及以职业为重点的多样性和包容性系列研讨会。这一套重点干预措施预计将导致强大的队列发展，当与持续细心的教师指导相结合时，预计将有助于学生坚持到毕业。该计划的学生将参与早期研究或实习机会，这将有助于解决地区雇主的就业需求。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中。归属线索是一些简短、简单的活动，可以唤起学生的归属感。例子包括突出第一代或来自低社会经济背景的成功工程师，向在校学生提供以前的学生关于他们成功过渡到大学和在逆境中坚持不懈的信息。研究问题将调查在一段较长时间内定期应用这种程序性归属线索是否会导致动机和归属感的持续改善，从而提高GPA和学生保留率。定性和定量方法将用于确定项目目标的实现水平，并评估学生的归属感和支持感，因为这与他们的坚持有关。自我决定理论是一种成熟的理论，在各种情况下使用，将作为评价的理论框架。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. 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.