Enhancing Underrepresented Participation ​in Mathematics & Statistics: Mentoring From Junior to Master’s

该项目将通过支持马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生的留校和毕业，为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做出贡献。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为30名全日制学生提供奖学金，这些学生将在一年多的时间里攻读数学学士学位和统计学或应用数学硕士学位。三年级的本科生将获得最多三年的奖学金。该项目旨在通过定期会议和协调课程的形式，结合财务支持和教师和同行的全面结构指导，增加数学专业的招生和坚持不懈的学习。除了奖学金，学生在最后一年还会获得暑期研究津贴以及学费减免和半职助教。该项目的一个主要重点将是通过与几个行业合作伙伴的合作为职业准备。该项目将通过项目团队进行的研究和通过数学科学少数民族中心对教师进行的广泛培训，帮助我们了解来自代表性不足和历史上被排除在外的人群的本科生在数学科学方面取得成功的常见障碍。如果实施，该项目将通过增加拥有数学学士学位和应用数学或统计学硕士学位的高技能毕业生，为发展一支多样化的、具有全球竞争力的STEM劳动力队伍做出贡献。该项目还有可能促进对最佳做法的了解，以增加低收入、代表性不足和历来被排除在外的数学学士学位和应用数学和统计学硕士学位的人数。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。现有的跨领域研究表明，学生在攻读本科和研究生学位时的坚持性和成就受到自我效能感的影响，自我效能感指的是他们对自己能力的信念、他们对目标设定活动的参与以及他们对结果的期望。然而，关于这项现有研究在数学科学领域的学生，特别是那些也来自代表不足和历史上被排除在外的人群的适用情况，人们知之甚少。这个项目将调查自我效能感是如何受到参与建议活动的影响的，目标设置如何影响成功完成应用数学或统计学的一加一硕士课程，以及在参与建议活动的三年中，结果预期如何变化和变化。该项目的成果将通过同行评议的文章和在各次会议上的发言公布。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 The University of Massachusetts Amherst. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 unique full time students who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s degree in Statistics or Applied Mathematics in a single plus-one year. Third year undergraduate students will receive up to three years of scholarships. This project aims to increase recruitment into and persistence in Mathematics by combining financial support and comprehensive structured mentoring from faculty and peers in the form of regular meetings and aligned coursework. In addition to scholarships, students are provided summer research stipends as well as a tuition waiver and half-time teaching assistantship during the final year. A key focus of the project will be career preparation through collaborations with several industry partners. The project will contribute to our understanding of common barriers to success in the mathematical sciences for undergraduate students from underrepresented and historically excluded populations, both through research conducted by the project team and through extensive training for faculty through the Center for Minorities in the Mathematical Sciences. If implemented, the project will contribute to the development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce by adding highly skilled graduates with bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics or Statistics. The project also has the potential to advance knowledge of best practices for increasing the number of low-income, underrepresented, and historically excluded recipients of bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Existing research across fields suggests that persistence and achievement in pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees is influenced by students’ self-efficacy, which refers to their belief in their own capabilities, their participation in goal setting activities, and their outcome expectations. However, little is known about how well this existing research applies to students in the mathematical sciences, especially those who are also from underrepresented and historically excluded populations. This project will investigate how self-efficacy is impacted by participation in the proposed activities, how goal setting impacts successful completion of a plus-one master’s program in Applied Mathematics or Statistics, and how outcome expectations vary and change throughout three years of participation in the proposed activities. Results of this project will be made available through peer-reviewed articles and through presentations at conferences. 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.