Developing Future STEM Leaders in the Caribbean: Scholarships and Systemic Support for Graduate Students in Marine and Environmental Biology in the Virgin Islands

培养加勒比地区未来的 STEM 领导者：为维尔京群岛海洋和环境生物学研究生提供奖学金和系统支持

• 批准号: 2030713
• 负责人: Donna Nemeth
• 金额: $ 99.96万
• 依托单位: University of The Virgin Islands
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030713&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; Future; STEM; Leaders; Caribbean

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 the University of the Virgin Islands, a Historically Black University. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide two-year scholarships to thirty-six unique full-time graduate students who are pursuing a Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Science degree. The selected Scholars will also have a demonstrated interest in natural resource conservation in the Caribbean. The project aims to increase student success in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including mentoring, research experiences, service learning, outreach projects, professional development, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. By analyzing the effectiveness of student recruitment, curriculum, and co-curricular activities, the project will identify practices with high impact for low-income students and adapt them to maximize their effect. The Scholars will conduct research that has regional significance, partner with potential employers, and share their research results. Broad dissemination of the project’s findings can enable it to serve as a model for graduate student recruitment and support services of low income, academically talented students in other programs at the University and at other institutions.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific goals of this project are to increase recruitment of Virgin Islanders in the master of marine and environmental sciences program, investigate conditions under which improved student learning occurs, promote successful post-graduate employment, and share the knowledge for broader impact. Additional project aims include analysis and improvement of recruitment strategies to include low income Virgin Island students, as well as students from populations that are under-represented in this STEM field. The scope of this project also includes faculty development workshops to address best practices for mentoring and advising of low-income students, as well as professional development training and professional partnering for the students. Potential outcomes include increased recruitment and graduation, and successful post-graduate employment of the Scholars. An external evaluator, provided by The Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI-EPSCoR), will assess this project using an approach that includes project document review and stakeholder surveys. NSF S-STEM Program initiatives will be bolstered through integration with the VI-EPSCoR project on undergraduate resilience education research, connecting freshman-level UVI students with co-curricular activities, service-learning projects, and community partners involved in this master of marine and environmental sciences initiative. 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.

该项目将有助于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，办法是支持成绩优异、低收入、有经济需要的学生在维尔京群岛大学（一所历史上的黑人大学）继续就读和毕业。 该项目为期五年，将为36名攻读海洋与环境科学硕士学位的全日制研究生提供为期两年的奖学金。 被选中的学者还将对加勒比地区的自然资源保护表现出兴趣。 该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括指导，研究经验，服务学习，外展项目，专业发展和参与特定学科的会议，来提高学生在STEM领域的成功。通过分析学生招聘，课程和课外活动的有效性，该项目将确定对低收入学生具有高影响力的做法，并对其进行调整，以最大限度地发挥其效果。 学者们将进行具有区域意义的研究，与潜在雇主合作，并分享他们的研究成果。 广泛传播该项目的研究结果可以使其成为研究生招生和支持服务的低收入，学术人才的学生在大学和其他机构的其他程序的模式。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。 该项目的具体目标是增加维尔京群岛人在海洋和环境科学硕士课程中的招聘，调查改善学生学习的条件，促进研究生成功就业，并分享知识以产生更广泛的影响。 其他项目目标包括分析和改进招聘战略，以包括维尔京群岛低收入学生，以及来自STEM领域代表性不足的人口的学生。 该项目的范围还包括教师发展讲习班，以探讨指导和咨询低收入学生的最佳做法，以及为学生提供专业发展培训和专业伙伴关系。 潜在的结果包括增加招聘和毕业，以及成功的学者毕业后就业。 由维尔京群岛促进竞争力研究既定方案提供的一名外部评估员将使用包括项目文件审查和利益攸关方调查在内的方法评估该项目。 NSF S-STEM计划计划将通过与VI-EPSCoR项目的本科弹性教育研究相结合，将新生级别的UVI学生与课外活动，服务学习项目以及参与海洋和环境科学计划的社区合作伙伴联系起来。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，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。