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

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在米勒斯维尔大学，约6500名本科生的区域公共机构证明经济需要的保留和毕业。在其6年的时间里，该项目将提供可再生奖学金，以30个不同的全日制，高成就，低收入的学生（3个队列，每个10名学生）谁是追求学士学位的生物学，化学，计算机科学，地球科学，数学，物理学，或机器人。除了获得财政支持，学者将是多方面的学术和课外支持计划的一部分。特别是，该项目将培养训练有素的学生，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建立并持续存在。与此相关，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现场站的合作伙伴关系，通过该计划，S-STEM学者的跨学科劳动力发展计划将提供信息丰富的研讨会，小型研究项目和队列建设活动，以帮助学生为他们的STEM职业做好准备。项目调查人员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和发现，特别是向努力支持低收入STEM学生的其他公共区域机构。为了提高低收入，高成就且有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率，该项目将追求几个目标。首先是在3个队列中招募30名不同的学者，并实施和分析学术和课外活动的综合计划，以支持，保留和毕业这些学者在无数的STEM学科。其次是实施战略，建立学生的知识和系统地支持学生的学术和职业途径在干，包括劳动力准备。第三是通过项目评估，采用定性和定量技术来分析和了解项目支持活动或活动组合的哪些方面对学生的保留，参与，学业成绩，劳动力准备和整体成功最有效。 第四是建立一个可持续和可复制的模式，并传播有关该模式的成果和发现，以告知其他寻求支持低收入、高天赋STEM学生的高等教育专业人士和区域机构。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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 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.