Winning Approaches for Talented Transfers in Science

该项目将通过支持在韦伯斯特大学表现出经济需求的成绩优异的低收入转学学生的保留和毕业，为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做出贡献。该项目为期五年，将为32名攻读化学和生物学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。该项目侧重于从当地和区域社区学院招收转学生，每位学者获得2-2.5年的资助。该项目将扩展有针对性的学术和学生支持系统，这些系统在缩短毕业时间和建立与行业合作伙伴的合作方面已被证明是有效的。该项目将审查所提供的所有活动的有效性和影响，包括将研究部分纳入奖学金获得者的第一学期。从这个项目中获得的最佳实践和经验教训将被记录下来，并与其他有兴趣吸引和成功毕业从社区大学转到STEM专业的学生的机构分享。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。该项目有三个主要目标：招收有学术天赋的低收入社区大学生进入生物和化学学士学位课程；通过有针对性的支持实践留住至少90%的学生；并为相关行业就业或研究生水平的学习做好准备。通过在第一学期将研究经历作为学习社区的一部分来实施，不仅在韦伯斯特，而且在研究型职业生涯中，保留的有效性将得到检验。评估和知识生成计划旨在收集学者项目经验和毕业后计划的定量和定性年度数据。数据将用于了解总体规划目标和成果的实现程度以及可以加强的领域。该项目产生的成果和证据将在教学会议和学术期刊上发表。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 transfer students with demonstrated financial need at Webster University. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 32 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology. The project focuses on the recruitment of transfer students from local and regional community colleges, with each scholar receiving 2-2.5 years of funding. This project will expand upon targeted academic and student support systems that have proven effective in decreasing time to graduation and in building collaborations with industry partners. The program will examine the effectiveness and impact of all activities offered, including the incorporation of a research component into scholarship recipients’ first semester. Best practices and lessons learned from this project will be documented and shared with other institutions interested in attracting and successfully graduating students transferring from community colleges and majoring in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project has three main objectives: to recruit and enroll academically talented, low-income community college students into biology and chemistry bachelor’s degree programs; to retain at least 90% of the students through targeted support practices; and to prepare our scholars for relevant industry employment or graduate level study. By implementing a research experience as part of a learning community in their first semester, the effectiveness on retention not only at Webster, but in research-oriented careers will be examined. The evaluation and knowledge-generation plan has been designed to gather both quantitative and qualitative annual data on the scholars’ program experience and post-graduation plans. Data will be used to understand the extent to which the overall articulated program goals and outcomes are met and what areas can be strengthened. The outcomes and evidence generated from the project will be presented at teaching and learning conferences and in academic journals. 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.