Leveraging Innovation and Optimizing Nurturing in STEM: The LION STEM Scholars Program

该项目将通过支持宾夕法尼亚州立大学(PSU)伯克斯校区表现出的经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进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。PSU Berks是宾夕法尼亚州立大学更大的土地赠与大学系统中的一所四年制寄宿本科大学，为大约2300名学生提供服务。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为18名攻读STEM学士学位的全日制高成就低收入学生提供奖学金，重点是工程专业的学生。一年级本科生将获得最长4年的可续期奖学金。学者将成为多模式、课程和共同课程、支持计划和队列体验的一部分。课程内容将包括数学密集的夏季桥牌课程、一年级研讨会和STEM-Persistence研讨会。联合课程活动的重点是专业沟通技能、金融知识、职业和工作准备、本科生研究、教师指导和社区参与。项目调查员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和发现，特别是向其他小型公共机构和其他PSU地区校园传播，努力支持低收入工程学学生和其他STEM学生。为了提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率，该项目将实现几个目标。首先是调整、实施和分析基于证据的课程和联合课程活动，以支持、留住和毕业一批不同的项目工程学者。第二是通过研究和项目评估战略来实施、测试和学习，以系统地支持STEM学生的学业和职业道路，包括发展STEM身份。第三，通过对该项目四年制多模式项目的调查，为知识库做出贡献，以便其他大学也可以成功地实施类似的项目。第四，向致力于支持低收入STEM学生的其他机构传播与促进学生成功的支持和干预相关的成果和调查结果。使用角色认同的动态系统模型[Garner和Kaplan，2017&amp；2019]作为理论框架，定性和定量研究和评估方法的见解和结果将产生新的知识，强调项目支持干预的哪些方面或干预措施的组合对学生的留住、参与、学业表现、STEM认同的发展和总体成功最有效。调查方向将填补文献中的空白，并向寻求通过课程和联合课程干预相结合来支持学生的其他高等教育专业人员提供信息，特别是来自城市地区的学生，这些地区的学生在STEM中的代表性不足。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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 Pennsylvania State University (PSU) Berks Campus. PSU Berks is a four-year residential undergraduate university within the larger Penn State land-grant university system and serves approximately 2,300 students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 18 full-time high-achieving low-income students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in STEM, with a focus on engineering students. First-year undergraduate students will receive renewable scholarships for up to 4 years. Scholars will be part of a multi-modal, curricular and co-curricular, support program and cohort experience. Curricular components will include a math-intensive summer bridge program, a first-year seminar, and a STEM-Persistence Seminar. Co-curricular activities focus on professional communication skills, financial literacy, career and workforce readiness, undergraduate research, faculty mentoring, and community engagement. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other small public institutions and other PSU regional campuses striving to support low-income engineering students and other STEM students.To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to adapt, implement, and analyze evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate a diverse set of the project's engineering scholars. Second is to implement, test, and study through research and project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including development of STEM identity. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base through investigation of the project's four-year multi-modal program so that other colleges may successfully implement similar programs. And fourth is to disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports and interventions that promote student success to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students. Using the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity [Garner and Kaplan, 2017 & 2019] as a theoretical framework, insights and outcomes from qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation methods will generate new knowledge emphasizing which aspects of the project's support interventions, or combination of interventions, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, development of STEM identity, and overall success of students. The directions of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support students with a combination of curricular and co-curricular interventions, especially from urban regions containing a significant population of students who are underrepresented in STEM. 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.