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

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在宾夕法尼亚州立大学（PSU）伯克斯校区表现出经济需要的保留和毕业。PSU Berks是一所四年制住宿本科大学，位于较大的宾夕法尼亚州立大学赠地大学系统内，为大约2，300名学生提供服务。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为18名正在攻读STEM学士学位的全日制高成就低收入学生提供奖学金，重点是工程专业学生。一年级本科生将获得最多4年的可再生奖学金。学者将成为多模式，课程和课外，支持计划和队列经验的一部分。课程组成部分将包括数学密集的夏桥计划，第一年的研讨会和STEM坚持研讨会。课外活动侧重于专业沟通技巧，金融知识，职业和劳动力准备，本科研究，教师指导和社区参与。项目调查人员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和发现，特别是其他小型公共机构和其他PSU区域校区，努力支持低收入工程专业学生和其他STEM学生。为了提高低收入，高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率并证明经济需要，该项目将追求几个目标。首先是适应，实施和分析以证据为基础的课程和课外活动，以支持，保留和毕业的项目的工程学者的多元化。其次是通过研究和项目评估战略来实施，测试和研究，以系统地支持学生在STEM的学术和职业途径，包括STEM身份的发展。第三是通过对该项目四年多模式项目的调查，为知识库做出贡献，以便其他学院可以成功实施类似的项目。第四，向其他致力于支持低收入STEM学生的机构传播与促进学生成功的支持和干预措施相关的成果和发现。使用角色身份的动态系统模型[加纳和卡普兰，2017 - 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，强调项目的支持干预措施或干预措施的组合的哪些方面对保留，参与，学习成绩，STEM身份的发展和学生的整体成功最有效。调查的方向将解决文献中的差距，并通知其他高等教育专业人士寻求支持学生与课程和课外干预相结合，特别是从城市地区包含一个显着的人口谁是在干代表性不足的学生。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, 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.