Equipped for Success: Science Identity, Community, and Engagement to Promote STEM Student Persistence

该项目将通过支持西南大学（一所私立文理学院）的优秀、低收入、有经济需要的学生的保留和毕业，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。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为25名攻读生物化学、生物学、化学、计算数学、计算机科学、数学或物理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。科学和数学一年级的学生将获得年度奖学金，最多可续期四年。该项目旨在全面促进这些学生的成功，并坚持使用循证方法获得学位。持久性框架将为学生创造一种第一年的体验，巩固他们的科学身份，同时促进动机和信心。学生将在科学和数学入门课程中体验主动学习；通过参加预科衔接课程和关键课程的队列注册，成为充满活力的学习社区的成员；并沉浸在早期的研究机会中。课程和课外高影响力的教育实践——如资助实习、本科生研究经历和对跨文化学习的支持——将在第一年建立的基础上，鼓励学生获得知识和实践技能，同时练习综合和应用学习。将通过正式和非正式的指导机会培养学生与教师导师、同龄人和校友之间的联系，并通过定期的健康教育计划促进学生的心理健康和健康。由于西南大学是一所新兴的西班牙裔服务机构，招收了大量未被充分代表的学生，因此该项目有可能使获得科学和数学学位的毕业生多样化，这是促进包容性劳动力的重要一步，这将推动未来的科学创新和卓越研究。该项目的总体目标是增加有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的本科生完成STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）学位。具体的项目目标包括：招募一个多元化的多学科的学生学者社区，他们有很高的经济需求，可以在西南大学攻读科学和数学学位；在使用持久性框架的第一年，促进学者的科学认同、动机和信心；并通过高影响力的教育实践、指导和健康规划为学者提供全面的多年支持结构。持续框架的有效性将被调查，该项目还将研究程序性干预如何影响学生的社会联系和情感健康。因此，该项目有可能促进对特定干预措施如何影响STEM学生的社会联系和福祉的理解，以及这些因素对持久性、科学身份、动机和信心等结果的关系。项目评估将基于变革理论框架，并将使用从调查和学者访谈中获得的信息，以及在西南大学攻读科学和数学学位的人口统计学相似的学生的比较（对照）组。该项目的成果将通过区域和国家会议（包括普通高等教育和特定学科会议）向学术界提供，并及时在具有广泛读者的多学科同行评议期刊上发表。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 students with demonstrated financial need at Southwestern University, a private liberal arts institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 25 unique fulltime students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computational mathematics, computer science, mathematics, or physics. The first-year science and math students will receive annual scholarships that are renewable for up to four years. This project aims to holistically promote the success of these students and their persistence to degree attainment using an evidence-based approach. The persistence framework will create a first-year experience for students that solidifies their science identity while promoting motivation and confidence. Students will experience active learning in their introductory science and math courses; become members of a vibrant learning community through participation in a pre-matriculation bridge program and cohort enrollment in key courses; and be immersed in early research opportunities. Curricular and co-curricular high impact educational practices – such as funded internships, undergraduate research experiences, and support for intercultural learning – will build upon the foundation created in the first year by encouraging students to gain knowledge and practical skills while also practicing integrative and applied learning. Connections between students and their faculty mentors, peers, and alumni will be cultivated through formal and informal mentoring opportunities, and student mental health and wellness will be promoted through regular health education programming. Because Southwestern University is an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution enrolling a strong population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to diversify the pool of graduates attaining science and math degrees, an important step toward promoting an inclusive workforce that will fuel scientific innovation and research excellence in the future.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific project aims include: recruiting a diverse multidisciplinary community of student Scholars with high financial need to pursue science and mathematics degrees at Southwestern University; promoting science identity, motivation, and confidence of Scholars during their first year using the persistence framework; and providing a comprehensive multi-year support structure for Scholars through high-impact educational practices, mentoring, and wellness programming. The efficacy of the persistence framework will be investigated, and this project will also examine how programmatic interventions affect student social connections and emotional wellness. Therefore, this project has the potential to advance understanding of how particular interventions affect the social connectedness and well-being of STEM students, and the relationship these factors have on outcomes such as persistence, science identity, motivation, and confidence. Project evaluation will be based on a Theory of Change framework and will use information gained from surveys and interviews with Scholars and a comparison (control) group of demographically similar students at Southwestern University in pursuit of science and mathematics degrees. Results of this project will be made available to the academic community through regional and national conferences (including general higher education and discipline-specific meetings) as well as timely publication in multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journals with broad readership. 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.