Walking Together to Increase Participation of Students from Underrepresented Groups in Engineering

该项目将通过支持亚利桑那大学（UA）、一所西班牙裔服务机构和两所地区部落学院——托霍诺·奥哈姆社区学院（TOCC）和圣卡洛斯·阿帕奇学院（SCAC）保留和毕业表现出经济需求的成绩优异的低收入学生，从而满足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。在项目期间，来自三所院校的教师将在三个校区花时间深入了解TOCC和SCAC以及UA工程学院的日常学生生活。TOCC和SCAC的教师将了解15个本科工程学位课程。每个人都将参加设计合作学生项目的研讨会，在转到UA之前，UA， TOCC和SCAC学生社区将形成。通过提供基于需求的奖学金和构建一个社区，让学生通过具有挑战性的课程取得进步，并在他们的职业道路上培养归属感，该计划旨在通过增加来自代表性不足的少数民族（URM）群体的学生和低收入学生进入工程专业，从而造福社会。通过增加低收入学生和来自URM群体的学生在工程方面的坚持，随后的新生将看到自己更好地代表并继续追求工程事业。更多多样化的工程专业毕业生将改变并拓宽解决社会技术问题的视角，雇主也会意识到这鼓励了创新。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。该团队将从一个协作规划项目开始，以更好地了解土著学生进入STEM项目并转入大型高等院校时成功的障碍。该团队将努力将与文化相关的概念，如Himdag （O 'odham的生活方式，包括尊重自己、他人、长辈和土地）和圣卡洛斯阿帕奇的遗产（与地球母亲密切相关）纳入UA工程课程。该团队将研究从同龄人、专业人士和教师那里获得指导的项目如何影响学生的归属感。归属感已经在学生与校园的关系方面进行了研究，但本项目扩展了先前的研究，以评估学生在工程专业中的归属感，以及学术支持和课外规划如何影响归属感，持久性和保留性。与项目评估人员合作的教育研究人员将组织焦点小组和调查，以发现学生的需求。最终目标是在2023年3月提交S-STEM第三轨道提案。计划拨款为从这三所院校收集机构数据提供了时间，以制定适当的干预措施，确定奖学金资格要求，确定奖学金金额，并建立咨询委员会。各院校将订立谅解备忘录和转让衔接协议。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 the University of Arizona (UA), a Hispanic Serving Institution, and two regional Tribal Colleges - Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC) and San Carlos Apache College (SCAC). During the project, faculty from the three institutions will spend time on the three campuses to gain insight into the day-to-day student life at TOCC and SCAC as well as the College of Engineering at UA. TOCC and SCAC faculty will learn about the 15 undergraduate engineering degree programs. Everyone will participate in workshops to design collaborative student programs in which UA, TOCC and SCAC student communities are formed prior to transfer to the UA. By providing need-based scholarships and structuring a community through which students will advance through challenging curriculum and develop a sense of belonging in their career pathway, this program aims to benefit society by increasing students from underrepresented minority (URM) groups and low-income students’ access to the engineering profession. Through increased persistence of low-income students and students from URM groups in engineering, subsequent incoming students will see themselves better represented and continue to pursue a career in engineering. More diverse engineering graduates will shift and widen the lens through which technical problems are solved in society and employers realize that this encourages innovation.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The team will begin with a Collaborative Planning project to better understand the barriers to success for Indigenous students as they enter STEM programs and transfer to large institutions of higher learning. The team will strive to incorporate culturally relevant concepts such as Himdag (the O’odham way of life that includes respect for oneself, for others, for elders, and for the land), and the heritage of the San Carlos Apache (deeply tied to Mother Earth) into UA engineering courses. The team will study how programs that employ mentorship from peers, professionals, and faculty, impact students’ sense of belonging. Sense of belonging has been studied in terms of students’ affiliation with a campus, but this project extends previous research to evaluate students’ sense of belonging in the engineering profession, and how academic support and co-curricular programming impacts that sense of belonging, persistence, and retention. The educational researcher in collaboration with the program evaluator will organize focus groups and surveys to uncover student needs. The ultimate goal is to submit a S-STEM Track 3 proposal in March 2023. The planning grant provides time to gather institutional data from the 3 institutions to develop appropriate interventions, define scholarship eligibility requirements, establish scholarship amounts, and establish advisory boards. The institutions will establish memorandums of understanding and transfer articulation agreements. 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.