Humanitarian Engineering and Science Ambassadors (HESA): Leveraging Funds of Knowledge for Student Success

该项目将通过支持科罗拉多矿业学院（Colorado School of Mines）表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，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。矿业大学是一所专注于科学和工程的公立大学。该项目为期六年，将为至少43名攻读人道主义工程和科学（环境工程、地球物理和地质工程专业）研究生学位的全日制学生，以及在这些合作学科从事人道主义工程和科学项目的学生提供奖学金。学生应在两年内完成学位。参加该项目的学生每年将获得1万美元的奖学金。在人道主义工程与科学硕士课程中，学生将工程学、地球科学和社会科学的知识结合起来，与他们寻求服务的社区一起解决当代挑战。参加该项目的学生将有机会参加指导和专业发展活动，将他们的STEM学习与他们的知识资金联系起来，或者将人们通过日常工作和家庭生活发展的技能和知识联系起来，但这些技能和知识在正式的课堂环境中很少被认可为知识。该项目将：1)指导学生将他们的知识资金视为他们在STEM学习和职业发展中的资产；2)指导教师使他们的课程和咨询实践更加包容低收入学生的知识资金。拟议的项目旨在促进对利用知识框架资金支持低收入学生攻读STEM研究生学位的最佳实践的理解。硕士水平的培训至关重要，因为它将使成绩优异的低收入家庭学生能够通过高级课程建立自己的知识基础，熟练掌握独立研究和社区项目，获得能够提供更多领导能力和更高薪酬的工作，以及/或过渡到博士课程。最后，人道主义工程和科学培训的独特重点意味着学生将解决影响服务不足社区的关键社会问题，如空气和地下水污染、食品安全、地质灾害以及获得清洁水和负担得起的能源。具体而言，人道主义工程和科学大使（HESA）项目将为低收入研究生提供奖学金和指导机会，这些研究生的论文研究或非论文实习将环境工程、地质工程或地球物理等学科的专业与可持续社区发展的社会科学课程结合起来。学生的“知识储备”在学业成功中的作用将被调查。HESA将为低收入家庭的学生提供一个正式的平台，让他们在研究生阶段学习和练习连接技能。学生将有机会规划自己的知识储备，并将其与STEM学习和专业发展联系起来。将采用混合方法（访谈和调查）来研究这些实践是否增强了学生对STEM的信心、兴趣和毕业确定性。这将使我们能够调查：1)“连接”技能是否可以通过师徒关系发展；2)连接技能是否能增强低收入家庭学生的自我效能感、STEM认同和坚持信念；3)知识资金在研究生培养和职业过渡中的作用。该项目的成果将通过网络研讨会、同行评议的期刊出版物、研讨会和在美国工程教育学会等会议上的演讲来传播。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 the Colorado School of Mines. Mines is a public university focused on science and engineering. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for at least 43 unique full-time students who are pursuing graduate degrees in Humanitarian Engineering and Science (with specialties in Environmental Engineering, Geophysics, Geological Engineering) as well as students in these partner disciplines who are doing humanitarian engineering and science projects. Students are expected to complete their degrees within two years. Those enrolled in the project will receive a $10,000 scholarship per year. In the Humanitarian Engineering and Science master’s program, students integrate knowledge from engineering, geoscience, and social science to solve contemporary challenges alongside the communities they seek to serve. Students enrolled in the project will have opportunities to participate in mentorship and professional development activities that connect their STEM learning with their funds of knowledge, or the skills and knowledge that people develop through their daily work and family lives but are infrequently recognized as knowledge in formal classroom settings. This project will: 1) mentor students to view their funds of knowledge as assets in their STEM learning and career development and 2) mentor faculty to make their classes and advising practice more inclusive of the funds of knowledge of low-income students. The proposed project aims to advance understanding of best practices for using the funds of knowledge framework to support low-income students pursuing graduate STEM degrees. Master’s level training is vital because it will allow high-achieving, low-income students to build their knowledge base through advanced coursework, to gain proficiency in independent research and community-based projects, to access jobs that offer more leadership and higher pay, and/or to transition into PhD programs. Finally, the unique focus of humanitarian engineering and science training means that students will tackle key societal problems that impact under-served communities, such as air and groundwater pollution, food (in)security, geohazards, and access to clean water and affordable energy.Specifically, the Humanitarian Engineering and Science Ambassadors (HESA) project will provide scholarships and mentoring opportunities to low-income graduate students whose thesis research or non-thesis practicum combines a disciplinary specialty in environmental engineering, geological engineering or geophysics, and others, with social scientific coursework in sustainable community development. The role of students’ “funds of knowledge” in their academic success will be investigated. HESA will provide a formal platform for low-income students to learn and practice connecting skills at the graduate level. Students will have an opportunity to map their own funds of knowledge and connect them with their STEM learning and professional development. A mixed methods (interviews and surveys) approach will be used to study whether those practices enhance students’ confidence, interest in STEM, and sense of graduation certainty. This will allow us to investigate: 1) whether “connecting” skills can be developed through mentorship; 2) whether connecting skills enhance low-income students’ self-efficacy, STEM identities, and persistence beliefs; and 3) the role of funds of knowledge in graduate training and career transitions. Results of this project will be disseminated through webinars, peer-reviewed journal publications, workshops, and presentations at conferences such as the American Society of Engineering Education. 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.