Building Science Identity, Sense of Belonging, and Social Support Networks to Increase the Success of Undergraduate Chemistry Transfer Students

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在西密歇根大学的经济需要。在其五年的时间里，该项目将提供奖学金，以多达40个独特的本科生谁是追求化学和/或生物化学学士学位后，从另一个机构转移到西密歇根大学。它还将支持多达8名攻读化学博士学位的研究生。本科生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持，研究生将获得长达五年的奖学金支持。 该项目旨在招募，保留和支持未来的化学家和生物化学家，通过机会进行夏季研究或参加当地行业，政府机构和社区组织的夏季实习。 该项目还将提供方案和讲习班，以促进学术成功和职业准备。参与的学生将与其他本科生，研究生，教师和行业专业人士一起完成活动。持续的教师专业发展将为所有STEM教师提供了解和参与讨论的机会，以帮助提高学生的归属感和包容性。由于西密歇根大学有大量的转学生，这个项目有可能扩大化学课程的参与。 该项目将为社会支持网络、归属感和科学家身份的发展如何支持这一学生群体的保留和毕业提供新的见解。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体而言，该项目旨在更好地整合和支持转学生，同时发展他们作为科学家的身份，并为他们的科学生涯和/或研究生学习做好准备。在西密歇根大学的化学系，40%的化学或生物化学专业的学生是转学生，过去五年的毕业生中有33%从另一个机构获得了30个或更多的学分。该项目包括结构化的，有针对性的干预措施，旨在将转学生融入化学系，支持他们作为科学家的身份发展，并建立他们的社会支持网络。本计划将透过每年一次的调查和访问，就科学家身份、社会支持网络、部门融合和归属感进行纵向评估。该项目将促进对转学生的经验和干预措施的作用，如学生编程，教师编程，分层队列，夏季研究和实习经验，以及学者认可的理解。这些研究结果将通过学术报告和出版物、项目网站和社区活动提供。项目的研究结果将有助于其他有兴趣更好地支持和留住从两年制院校转来的理科学生的机构。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 at Western Michigan University. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to up to 40 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and/or Biochemistry after transferring to Western Michigan University from another institution. It will also support up to eight graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in Chemistry. Undergraduate students will receive up to four years of scholarship support and graduate students will receive up to five years of scholarship support. This project intends to recruit, retain, and support future chemists and biochemists through opportunities to conduct summer research or participate in summer internships with local industries, government agencies, and community organizations. The project will also offer programming and workshops to promote academic success and career preparation. Participating students will complete activities in a cohort with other undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals. Ongoing faculty professional development will provide all STEM faculty with the opportunity to learn about and engage in discussions to help improve students’ sense of belonging and inclusion. Because Western Michigan University has a high population of transfer students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in chemistry programs. The project will provide new insights into how social support networks, sense of belonging, and development of scientist identities support retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project aims to better integrate and support transfer students while developing their identities as scientists and preparing them for scientific careers and/or graduate studies. In the Chemistry Department at Western Michigan University, 40% of students enrolling as chemistry or biochemistry majors are transfer students and 33% of the graduates over the past five years have 30 or more credits from another institution. This project includes structured, targeted interventions aimed at integrating transfer students into the chemistry department, supporting their development of identities as scientists, and building their social support networks. This project will be evaluated longitudinally through yearly surveys and interviews on scientist identity, social support networks, and departmental integration and sense of belonging. This project will advance understanding of the experiences of transfer students and the role of interventions such as student programming, faculty programming, stratified cohorts, summer research and internship experiences, and scholar recognition. These findings will be made available through academic presentations and publications, a project website, and community events. Project findings will be useful to other institutions interested in better supporting and retaining science students transferring from two-year institutions. 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.