Preparing College Students who Enter from High School or Transfer from Community Colleges for STEM Careers and Graduate School

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。该项目由北卡罗来纳大学格林斯博罗分校领导，这是一个少数民族服务机构。该项目为期五年，将为40名攻读生物学、化学与生物化学、计算机科学、地理学（仅限地球科学与地理信息系统）、数学与统计学、物理与天文学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级将选拔20名学生，其中10名是FTIC学生，10名是CCT学生；二年级也将选出20名学生。第一年入学的FTIC学生将有资格获得最多八个学期的资助，而CCT学生将有资格获得最多六个学期的资助。除了提供奖学金支持外，该项目还将通过群体发展、本科生研究机会、同伴和教师导师、早期建议以及对研究实验室的虚拟和现场访问来支持学者的成功。为了增加关于如何最好地支持低收入STEM学生在大学取得成功的知识，该项目将研究在STEM队列中如何影响CCT学生的归属感、自我效能感和科学认同感。本研究将比较FTIC学生与CCT学生，以了解两组学生的异同。这项研究的结果将有助于其他大学开展队列活动，以增加STEM领域合格的FTIC或CCT的坚持和毕业。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。除了为有经济需要的STEM学生提供经济援助外，该项目还旨在通过创造一个自我维持的学生成功环境来提高保留率，这将成为类似机构的典范。此外，该项目将研究项目活动和学生支持的影响，以确定这些项目要素的影响是否因FTIC或CCT状态而异。在现有支持的基础上，将增加新的活动和支持机制，以应对CCT学生在向中等规模的城市大学过渡时面临的独特挑战，这些大学的转校生数量高度多样化且迅速增长。利用Tinto和Packard对归属感的研究，本项目将调查项目基本要素的有效性，并检查学者经验的异同。该项目将测量自我效能感、科学认同感、归属感、专业技能发展、心理健康/福祉和对STEM的坚持，以确定个别项目活动和综合效果对CCT和FTIC学生的影响。预期的结果包括增加对FTIC和CCT学生之间的异同的了解，并促进学者的职业发展。项目评价将采用混合方法来确定从收集的数据中产生的主题。项目资源和成果将通过项目网站传播，并扩展到其他社交媒体平台。项目工作人员将与其他大学人员和办公室合作，创建区域和全州的S-STEM活动。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 is led by the University of North Carolina Greensboro, a Minority Serving Institution. Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 40 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Computer Science, Geography (Earth Science and GIS tracks only), Mathematics and Statistics, and Physics and Astronomy. Twenty students will be selected in Year 1, with ten First Time in College (FTIC) and ten Community College transfer (CCT) students; a similar set of twenty students will be selected in Year 2. FTIC students entering in year one will be eligible for up to eight semesters of funding and CCT students will be eligible for up to six semesters of funding. In addition to providing scholarship support, the project will support Scholars' success through cohort development, undergraduate research opportunities, peer and faculty mentors, early advising, and virtual and onsite visits to research labs. To increase knowledge about how to best support the college success of low income STEM students, the project will examine how being in a STEM cohort affects CCT students’ sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and science identity. This research study will compare FTIC and CCT students to understand the similarities and differences between the two groups. Results of this research will help other universities develop cohort activities to increase the persistence and graduation of well-qualified FTIC or CCT in STEM fields. 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 providing financial assistance to STEM students with financial need, the project aims to increase retention rates by creating a self-sustaining student success environment that will serve as a model for similar institutions. Additionally, the project will study the impact of project activities and student support to determine if the impact of these project elements differ by FTIC or CCT status. New activities and support mechanisms will be added to existing supports to target the unique challenges that CCT students face as they transition to a mid-size, urban university with a highly diverse and rapidly growing transfer student population. Using Tinto’s and Packard’s research on sense of belonging, this project will investigate the effectiveness of essential elements of the project and examine similarities and differences of Scholars' experiences. The project will measure self-efficacy, science identity, sense of belonging, professional skill development, mental health/well-being, and persistence in STEM to determine the impacts of individual project activities and combined effects on CCT and FTIC students. Anticipated outcomes include increased knowledge about the similarities and difference between FTIC and CCT students and facilitating Scholars’ career pathways. Project evaluation will use a mixed methods approach to identify themes that emerge from the collected data. Project resources and outcomes will be disseminated through the project website and expanded to include other social media platforms. Project staff will partner with other University personnel and offices to create regional and statewide S-STEM events. 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.