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

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为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做出贡献。该项目由北卡罗来纳大学格林斯伯勒分校领导，该大学是一家少数族裔服务机构。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为40名正在攻读生物、化学和生物化学、计算机科学、地理(仅限地球科学和地理信息系统)、数学和统计学以及物理和天文学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。第一年将有20名学生入选，其中10名是第一次大学(FTIC)学生，10名是社区大学转学(CCT)学生；第二年将选出类似的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，社区大学转学(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，该项目还将通过队列发展、本科生研究机会、同行和教师导师、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们的成功。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，该项目将研究处于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。本研究将对FTIC和CCT学生进行比较，以了解两组学生的异同。本研究的结果将有助于其他大学开展队列活动，以提高STEM领域优秀的FTIC或CCT的持久度和毕业程度。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。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的地位而不同。将在现有支持的基础上增加新的活动和支持机制，以针对CCT学生在过渡到中等规模的城市大学时面临的独特挑战，该大学的转学学生人数高度多样化且迅速增长。本项目将利用廷托和帕卡德对归属感的研究，考察项目基本要素的有效性，并考察学者们经验的异同。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/幸福感和对STEM的坚持性，以确定个别项目活动和综合影响对CCT和FTIC学生的影响。预期结果包括增加对FTIC和CCT学生之间的异同的了解，并促进学者的职业道路。项目评价将使用混合方法方法来确定从收集的数据中出现的主题。项目资源和成果将通过项目网站传播，并扩大到包括其他社交媒体平台。项目工作人员将与大学其他人员和办公室合作，创建地区性和全州范围的S-STEM活动。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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.