Gateway to success: combining financial, academic and psychosocial supports to promote academic success of low-income STEM majors

该项目将通过支持在马里斯特学院有经济需要的成绩优异的低收入学生的保留和毕业，为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做出贡献。玛丽斯特学院是一所综合性的、独立的机构，强调文科。该项目为期6年，将资助23名攻读生物学、生物化学、化学和环境科学本科学位的全日制学生。第一年的学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过结合财政、学术和课外支持结构，提高STEM领域的留校率和毕业率。支持活动包括全面的学术咨询、学术队列模型、职业规划和指定宿舍社区的科学导向规划。在入门或“入门”科学课程中补充同伴指导旨在提高学习成绩，因为入门课程通常会对STEM领域的坚持存在障碍。全国范围内低收入大学生的数量正在增加；因此，提高STEM专业的成功率有可能拓宽进入STEM领域的机会。本项目旨在对门户课程中的经济支持、指导、职业建议和补充指导如何影响低收入学生的留校和毕业的研究进行补充。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、优秀本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体而言，有四个具体目标：1)减少经济需求，以便让学生专注于学业成功；2)提高STEM门户课程的表现；3)提供强有力的指导和职业规划支持；4)培养对校园和社区的归属感，同时增加学生科学身份的专业形成。社会经济因素、入门课程的表现和社会心理因素影响低收入家庭学生的持久性。在私立综合机构的背景下，人们对有针对性的干预措施如何改善低收入学生的经历和他们的学业坚持性知之甚少。通过奖学金提供财政支持，通过健全的规划提供学术支持，预计学生将获得学术成功和更高的毕业率。参与该计划有望提高学生的学业坚持度，减少学生退出门户课程的情况；它还旨在提高整体留存率。该项目有可能促进对计划方面的理解，这对保留低收入学生在STEM中最重要。该项目将根据来自机构数据、成绩报告和调查的定量和定性数据进行评估，这些数据将与来自焦点小组和访谈的定性数据进行三角测量。该项目的成果将通过会议报告、出版物和专业发展讲习班提供。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 Marist College. Marist College is a comprehensive, independent institution that emphasizes the liberal arts. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund 23 unique full-time students pursuing undergraduate degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, and environmental science. First year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project aims to improve retention and graduation rates in STEM fields by combining financial, academic, and co-curricular support structures. Support activities include holistic academic advising, an academic cohort model, career planning, and science-oriented programming in designated residence hall communities. Supplemental peer instruction in introductory or ‘gateway’ science courses aims to improve academic performance, as gateway courses often present barriers to persistence in STEM fields. The number of low-income college students is increasing nationally; therefore, increasing the success in STEM majors has the potential to broaden entry into STEM fields. This project aims to add to body of research on how the roles of financial support, mentoring, career advising, and supplemental instruction in gateway courses affect the retention and graduation of low-income students. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion among low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. In particular, there are four specific aims: 1) reduce financial need in order to allow students to focus on academic success, 2) improve performance in gateway STEM courses, 3) provide strong mentoring and career planning support, and 4) foster a sense of belonging to both the campus and community while adding to the professional formation of students’ science identities. Socioeconomic factors, performance in gateway courses, and psychosocial factors are known to affect persistence of low-income students. In the context of a private comprehensive institution, less is known about how targeted interventions can improve the experience of low-income students and their academic persistence. By providing financial support through scholarships and academic support through robust programming, it is expected students will experience academic success and higher rates of graduation. Participation in the program is expected to increase students' academic persistence and decrease students' withdrawal from gateway courses; it also aims to increase retention rates overall. This project has the potential to advance understanding of the programmatic aspects that are most important for retaining low-income students in STEM. The project will be evaluated with quantitative and qualitative data from institutional data, grade reports, and surveys which will be triangulated with qualitative data from focus groups and interviews. The results of the project will be made available via conference presentations, publications, and professional development workshops. 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.