Supporting Inclusive Excellence II: Scholarships to Support Undergraduate Student Success in Neuroscience and Biology-Biochemistry-Molecular Biology Majors

该项目将通过支持乌尔西纳斯学院（一所小型文理学院）中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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。该项目为期五年，将为20名攻读神经科学或生物学、生物化学和分子生物学专业理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将进入两组一年级学生，并获得四年的奖学金支持。许多学术上有天赋的大学生由于他们的高中经历而没有为上大学做好准备，这种准备的缺乏阻碍了他们的成功。通过创新和完善的策略来促进学生的成功，该项目将支持学生通过生物入门课程的摩擦点，并增加他们成功完成专业。在新的“学习领导”课程中，学生将通过考虑当前的科学问题，培养成为科学伦理领导者的技能。奖学金获得者将会见来自不同背景的成功职业科学家，作为榜样。此外，通过职业研讨会，向学生介绍实习和研究机会，并为他们做好准备，以及各种职业道路，学者们将开始在科学领域的职业生涯。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。这个项目的目标是让学生上得起大学，这样他们就能充分发挥自己的潜力。该项目旨在为学生提供成功所需的学习技巧、作为科学家的自信以及科学内容知识。该项目将包括完善的提高学生成功的方法，包括在学者之间建立社区，个性化的学术建议和职业指导。此外，该项目还将实施一门新的“学习领导”课程和1月为期四天的研讨会，为学生准备第二学期的生物课程，该课程强调设计和实施实验。本项目将通过调查参与活动的学者和其他学生对项目有效性的看法来调查这些活动的有效性。有关学生成绩、专业毕业前的保留情况以及他们大学毕业后的下一步行动的数据将被收集并用于通知项目改进。这些数据还将用于评估这些项目活动的有效性，以便通过介绍和出版物与全国的同事分享调查结果。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 at Ursinus College, a small liberal arts college. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships for 20 unique full-time students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in the Neuroscience or the Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology majors. Scholars will enter in two cohorts of first-year students and receive four years of scholarship support. Many academically talented undergraduates are unprepared for college by their high school experiences and this lack of preparation stands in the way of their success. Through both novel and well-established strategies to boost student success, this project will support students through attrition points in introductory biology courses and increase their successful completion of the majors. In the new Learning to Lead course, students will develop the skills to become ethical leaders in science by considering current science issues. The Scholars will meet successful career scientists of diverse backgrounds as role models. Additionally, through career workshops that introduce students to and prepare them for internship and research opportunities, as well as various career paths, the Scholars will be launched on careers in science. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The goal of this project is to make college affordable for students so that they can reach their full potential. The project aims to provide students with the study skills, confidence in themselves as scientists, and science content knowledge necessary to succeed. The project will include well established methods of increasing student success including building community among Scholars, individualized academic advising, and career guidance. In addition, the project will implement a new Learning to Lead course and a four-day January workshop to prepare students for the second semester biology course that has an emphasis on designing and conducting experiments. This project will investigate the effectiveness of these activities through surveys of perceptions of program effectivenessm from both scholars and other students who participate in the activities. Data on student grades, retention until graduation in the major, and their next steps after college will be collected and used to inform project improvement. The data will also be used to assess the effectiveness of these project activities so that findings may be shared with colleagues nationally through presentations and publications. 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.