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。 该项目由北卡罗来纳州格林斯伯勒大学领导，这是一个少数民族服务机构。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为40名攻读生物学、化学和生物化学、计算机科学、地理（仅限地球科学和GIS学科）、数学和统计学以及物理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金和天文学。20名学生将在第一年被选中，10名第一次在大学（FTIC）和10名社区学院转学（CCT）的学生; 20名学生将在第二年被选中。进入第一年的FTIC学生将有资格获得最多八个学期的资助，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、早期咨询以及对研究实验室的虚拟和现场访问来支持学者的成功。为了增加有关如何最好地支持低收入STEM学生的大学成功的知识，该项目将研究如何在STEM队列影响CCT学生的归属感，自我效能感和科学身份。 本研究将比较FTIC和CCT学生，以了解两组之间的相似性和差异。 这项研究的结果将有助于其他大学开展队列活动，以增加在STEM领域合格的FTIC或CCT的持久性和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。除了向有经济需要的STEM学生提供财政援助外，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，该环境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，以确定这些项目元素的影响是否因FTIC或CCT状态而异。新的活动和支持机制将被添加到现有的支持，以针对CCT学生面临的独特挑战，因为他们过渡到一个中等规模的城市大学，具有高度多样化和快速增长的转学生人口。本项目将利用Tinto和Packard关于归属感的研究，调查该项目的基本要素的有效性，并检查学者们的经验的异同。该项目将测量自我效能，科学身份，归属感，专业技能发展，心理健康/福祉，并在STEM坚持，以确定个别项目活动的影响和对CCT和FTIC学生的综合影响。 预期成果包括增加对FTIC和CCT学生之间的相似性和差异的了解，并促进学者的职业道路。项目评价将采用混合方法，以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. 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.