Aspirar, An Integrated Program of Enhanced Advising and First-Year Experiences to Improve STEM Recruitment and Retention of Hispanic Students

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个第二轨道项目旨在加强教师建议和一年级学生的体验，重点是吸引和留住西班牙裔学生参加STEM衔接课程。亚基马山谷学院（YVC）是华盛顿州的一所西班牙裔服务机构，主要提供两年制学位和证书，重点是劳动力发展和为四年制大学课程做准备。尽管60%的YVC学生认为自己是西班牙裔，但在选修STEM核心课程的学生中，这一比例下降了一半。为了解决这一代表性不足的问题，本提案将借鉴文献中发表的多种学生支持策略。这些策略的证据基础主要由四年制大学提供，并以新颖的方式应用于YVC——一个两年制的农村西班牙裔服务机构。阿斯派尔项目将促进对指导教师群体培训价值的认识和理解，加快对新生的支持服务，并增加获得第一年经验的机会。社区学院是未来大学入学的关键驱动力，而Aspirar项目是一项战略计划，旨在实现一个主要的社会目标，即增加代表性不足的群体参与STEM。为了解决STEM课程与非STEM课程中学生人口结构的巨大差异，Aspirar计划将遵循两个指导目标：1)通过专家建议增加西班牙裔、低收入和整体代表性不足的少数民族（URM）的STEM招聘和保留；2)通过STEM途径学生的第一年经验增加URM STEM招聘和保留。这些目标将通过结合对新生的高影响力早期干预活动、定期一对一咨询、文化响应实践的专业发展以及扩大学生获得课外经验的机会来实现。Aspirar项目的有效性将通过基于研究的设计来衡量，并将与传统课程进行比较，并将为高等教育（特别是两年制大学）的最佳实践知识做出贡献。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。考虑到hsi的多样化性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及(3)提高对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将借鉴这些方法，为如何实现这些目标提供新的知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to enhance faculty advising and first-year student experiences, with an emphasis on attracting and retaining Hispanic students in the STEM Pathway programs. Yakima Valley College (YVC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution in Washington state, provides primarily 2-year degrees and certificates focused on workforce development and preparedness for four-year college programs. Although 60% of YVC students identify as Hispanic, this proportion drops by half for students enrolled in STEM core courses. To address this under-representation this proposal will draw upon multiple student support strategies published in the literature. The evidence base for these strategies, predominantly produced by 4-year universities, is applied in novel ways to YVC a rural, 2-year, Hispanic-Serving Institution. The Aspirar program will advance knowledge and understanding of the value of cohort-based training of faculty advisors, accelerating support services for new students, and increasing access to first-year experiences. Community colleges represent a key driver of future enrollment in universities and the Aspirar program is a strategic plan towards achieving a major societal goal of increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. To address this enormous disparity in student demographics in STEM courses versus non-STEM courses the Aspirar program will follow two guiding objectives: 1) Increase Hispanic, low-income, and overall Under-Represented Minority (URM) STEM recruitment and retention through expert advising and 2) Increase URM STEM recruitment and retention through first-year experiences for STEM Pathways students. These objectives will be achieved by combining high-impact activities of early interventions for new students, regular one-on-one advising, professional development in culturally responsive practices, and expanding student access to extracurricular experiences. The effectiveness of the Aspirar program will be measured through a research-based design and will be compared with the traditional curriculum and will contribute to the knowledge of best practices in higher education, particularly for 2-year colleges. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.