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

该项目将通过支持马里斯特学院有经济需求的高成就、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。马里斯特学院是一所强调文科的综合性独立学院。在六年的时间里，这个项目将资助23名独特的全日制学生攻读生物、生物化学、化学和环境科学的本科学位。一年级学生将获得最多四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过将财政、学术和联合课程支持结构结合起来，提高STEM领域的保留率和毕业率。支持活动包括整体学术咨询、学术队列模型、职业规划和指定住宅区社区的科学规划。在入门或“入门”科学课程中进行同伴补充指导的目的是提高学业成绩，因为入门课程往往会给STEM领域的持久力带来障碍。在全国范围内，低收入大学生的数量正在增加；因此，提高STEM专业的成就率有可能扩大进入STEM领域的可能性。该项目旨在增加关于经济支持、指导、职业咨询和补充指导在门户课程中的作用如何影响低收入学生留校和毕业的研究。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体地说，它有四个具体目标：1)减少经济需求，以便让学生专注于学业成功；2)提高入门STEM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，同时增加学生科学认同感的专业形成。众所周知，社会经济因素、入门课程的表现以及心理社会因素都会影响低收入学生的持久性。在私立综合性机构的背景下，关于有针对性的干预措施如何改善低收入学生的体验和他们的学业坚持性，人们知之甚少。通过奖学金提供经济支持，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。参加该计划预计将提高学生的学业坚持性，减少学生退学入门课程；它还旨在提高总体保留率。该项目有可能促进对方案方面的了解，这些方案方面对于留住低收入学生在STEM中是最重要的。将使用机构数据、等级报告和调查中的定量和定性数据对该项目进行评估，这些数据将与重点小组和访谈中的定性数据进行三角划分。该项目的成果将通过会议报告、出版物和专业发展讲习班公布。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 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.