Supporting Student Success: Improving Retention in STEM Fields by Implementing a Workforce Development Research Methods Program

该项目将通过支持米尔斯维尔大学保留和毕业高成就的低收入学生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。米尔斯维尔大学是一所地区性公共机构，约有6500名本科生。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为30名不同的全日制、高成就、低收入学生(3组，每组10名学生)提供可更新的奖学金，他们正在攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、地球科学、数学、物理或机器人学的学士学位。除了获得经济支持外，学者还将参加一个多方面的学术和共同课程支持计划。特别是，该项目将培养一批训练有素的学生，他们将为整个地区的STEM劳动力做好准备。由当地行业、内容专家、大学支持服务和训练有素的同行/职业导师组成的协作支持网络将在项目生命周期内到位并在项目结束后持续存在。在这方面，该项目将建立一个社区建设保留计划(Cobra)，并将包括与弗吉尼亚州沃洛普斯岛的钦科蒂格湾野战站合作，通过该计划，针对S-STEM学者的跨学科劳动力发展计划将包括内容丰富的研讨会、小型研究项目和队列建设活动，以帮助学生为他们的STEM职业生涯做好准备。项目调查员将向努力支持低收入STEM学生的其他公共地区机构传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和调查结果。为了提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率，该项目将实现几个目标。首先是在3个队列中招募30名不同的学者，并实施和分析一项全面的学术和课程活动计划，以支持、留住这些学者，并使他们在众多STEM学科毕业。第二，实施建立学生知识的战略，并系统地支持学生在STEM的学术和职业道路，包括劳动力准备。第三是通过项目评估为知识库做出贡献，采用定性和定量技术来分析和了解项目支持活动的哪些方面或活动组合对学生的留住、参与、学习成绩、劳动力准备和总体成功最有效。第四是产生一个可持续和可复制的模式，并传播与该模式有关的成果和发现，以向其他高等教育专业人员和寻求支持低收入、才华横溢的STEM学生的区域机构提供信息。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 the Millersville University, a regional public institution of approximately 6500 undergraduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide renewable scholarships to 30 distinct full-time, high-achieving, low-income students (3 cohorts with 10 students each) who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, earth science, mathematics, physics, or robotics. In addition to receiving financial support, scholars will be part of a multi-facet academic and co-curricular support program. In particular, the project will produce cohorts of well-trained students who will be prepared to the STEM workforce throughout the region. Collaborative support networks of local industry, content experts, University support services, and trained peer/career mentors, will be in place during, and sustained past, the project's lifetime. In connection with this, the project will build a Community Building Retention Program (CoBRA) and will include a partnership with Chincoteague Bay Field Station at Wallops Island, Virginia, through which an interdisciplinary Workforce Development Program for S-STEM Scholars will feature informative seminars, mini-research projects, and cohort-building activities to help prepare students for their STEM careers. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other public regional institutions striving to support low-income 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 recruit a diverse set of 30 scholars in 3 cohorts and to implement and analyze a comprehensive program of academic and co-curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate these scholars in myriad STEM disciplines. Second is to implement strategies for building student knowledge and systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including workforce preparation. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base through project evaluation by employing qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze and gain insights regarding which aspects of the project's support activities, or combination of activities, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, workforce preparation, and overall success of students. And fourth is to yield a sustainable and replicable model, and disseminate outcomes and findings with respect to this model, to inform other higher-education professionals and regional institutions seeking to support low-income, highly talented STEM students. 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.