Collaboration Between Community Colleges and a University to Increase Transfer Student Success in STEM

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，低收入社区学院转学生的保留和毕业，证明在玛丽山大学，一个小型的私立天主教文科大学的经济需要。该大学将与两所地区社区学院，蒙哥马利学院和弗雷德里克社区学院合作，以加强转学过程，促进转学学生的成功。 该项目为期五年，将分三批向27名转学生提供两年奖学金。 学者将攻读生物化学，生物学，化学，计算机科学，网络安全，环境科学和/或数学的学士学位。 社区学院和大学教师将合作招募并建议所有有兴趣转入四年制大学的学生。在社区学院第二年秋季入学后，学生将获得广泛的转学前支持，有些学生将被选中获得奖学金。 在大学，所有转学生都将受益于旨在促进STEM学生保留和毕业的支持。因此，该项目的潜在影响远远超出了27名学者。 该项目将教育教师关于包容性教学法，以帮助促进不同学生的学术成就。对该项目活动的评估将促进对支持STEM社区大学转学生的招聘、保留和成功的有效策略的理解。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。玛丽山大学将与弗雷德里克社区学院和蒙哥马利学院合作实施转学途径计划，这是一项旨在增加转学资本的增强型招聘计划。被大学录取的学生将获得广泛的转学前支持，旨在进一步增加转学资金并促进他们的过渡。 在大学录取后，他们将获得学术，社会和专业发展支持，旨在促进保留和毕业。入选的学生还将获得奖学金。 该项目的预期可衡量成果是：1）从蒙哥马利学院和弗雷德里克社区学院招募并资助27名符合佩尔条件的STEM学生; 2）通过毕业保留90%的学者; 3）在毕业后一年内将90%的学者安置在研究生院或STEM领域的专业角色; 4）确定机构伙伴关系在促进入学，转移资本和学术人才，低收入STEM社区大学转学生的参与方面的有效性。由于大部分研究转学生成功的研究都涉及大型公共机构，因此重要的是要了解社区学院和小型私立大学之间的机构合作伙伴关系如何促进转学资本，学生参与和学生成功。这些变量的措施将进行比较前和后参与的转移途径计划和社区学院的学生谁参加了转移途径和那些谁没有。通过出版物和会议介绍，伙伴机构将广泛传播研究和评价结果。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, and engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income community college transfer students with demonstrated financial need at Mount St. Mary’s University, a small private Catholic liberal arts university. The university will partner with two regional community colleges, Montgomery College and Frederick Community College, to strengthen the transfer process and promote transfer student success. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide two-year scholarships to 27 transfer students, in three cohorts. The Scholars will pursue bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, cybersecurity, environmental science, and/or mathematics. Community college and university faculty will collaborate to recruit and advise all students interested in transferring to a four-year institution. Upon acceptance in the fall of their second year at the community college, students will receive extensive pre-transfer support and some will be selected to receive scholarships. At the university, all transfer students will benefit from supports designed to promote retention and graduation of STEM students. As a result, the project has the potential for impact well beyond the 27 Scholars. The project will educate faculty about inclusive pedagogy to help promote academic achievement of diverse students. Evaluation of the project’s activities will advance understanding of effective strategies for supporting recruitment, retention, and success of community college transfer students in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Mount St. Mary’s University will partner with Frederick Community College and Montgomery College to implement the Transfer Pathways Program, an enhanced recruiting program designed to increase transfer capital. Students accepted into the university will receive extensive pre-transfer support designed to further increase transfer capital and facilitate their transition. Upon matriculation to the university, they will receive academic, social, and professional development support designed to promote retention and graduation. Selected students will also receive scholarships. The intended measurable outcomes of this project are: 1) To recruit and financially support 27 Pell-eligible STEM students from Montgomery College and Frederick Community College; 2) To retain 90% of the Scholars through graduation; 3) To place 90% of Scholars in graduate school or professional roles in their STEM field within one year of graduation; 4) To determine the effectiveness of the institutional partnership on promoting enrollment, transfer capital, and engagement of academically talented, low-income STEM community college transfer students. Because much of the research examining transfer student success has involved large, public institutions, it is important to understand how institutional partnerships between community colleges and small private universities can promote transfer capital, student engagement, and student success. Measures of these variables will be compared pre- and post-participation in the Transfer Pathways program and between community college students who participated in Transfer Pathways and those who did not. Through publications and conference presentations, the partnering institutions will widely disseminate research and evaluation results. 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.