The Pee Dee Scholars: Forging STEM Transfer Success in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina

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，低收入的学生在四年制私立文科院校科克大学（CU）和佛罗伦萨达林顿技术学院（FDTC），两年制技术学院的保留和毕业。在六年的时间里，这个项目计划资助奖学金，以48名全日制学生攻读学士学位的生物学，计算机科学，数学和化学在CU或在FDTC一般科学副学士学位。一年级学生将在CU获得长达四年的奖学金支持，副学士和转学生将分别在FDTC和CU获得长达两年的奖学金。该项目的前两年将以协作，跨机构和基于证据的活动为特色，包括三层教师/同行指导模式，侵入式咨询，第一年经验课程和STEM研讨会系列。此外，为了提高科学身份，社区，STEM职业意识，坚持STEM，保留和转移学生资本（TSC）在FDTC为基础的学者，项目团队打算创建一个跨机构的生活学习社区。最后两年将进一步发展学者的科学身份和归属感，促进职业和研究经验，并通过行业实习，本科生研究机会和学生ePortfolio为STEM的职业或研究生院做好准备。该项目提出了一种跨机构和可扩展的方法，以提高在STEM中代表性不足的低收入学生的保留率，毕业率和转学率，包括代表性不足的少数民族（URM），以及他们家庭中的第一代上大学。为了提高低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成与证明财政需要，该项目将追求几个具体目标。首先是增加国内，低收入，学术天赋的学生在CU和FDTC STEM专业的重点招生。第二是适应和实施循证的课程和课外活动，以增加保留，持久性，转移和毕业率为Pee Dee学者。第三，来自Pee Dee地区的低收入、学术天赋优秀的STEM毕业生人数增加，他们在毕业后进入STEM劳动力市场或寻求高级STEM学位。尽管有大量数据显示，寻求转入四年制大学并获得学士学位的低收入社区大学学生遇到了挑战，但仍然缺乏与跨机构战略相关的信息，以支持低收入学生在转学过程中完成四年制学位。很少有研究试图估计两年制和四年制大学之间的跨机构合作关系对转学生学士学位完成率的影响。该项目将通过研究低收入社区大学生的现有障碍，促进对影响学生自我效能和完成四年制STEM学位的主要因素的理解。特别是，项目领导将以一个中心研究问题为指导：“什么因素有助于低收入转学生在STEM中取得成功？“项目调查人员假设，增强的财政支持加上基于证据的实践和TSC框架支持的丰富的跨机构参与的结合将增加学生的成功，包括在STEM专业的坚持和大学的整体保留。此外，这些做法预计将导致更高的入学率进入四年制和/或研究生和专业课程，然后在STEM职业生涯中就业。该项目将使用混合方法进行评估，使用定量和定性数据从机构数据，教师，导师，学生调查和焦点小组，前和后测试，毕业和安置数据。该项目的成果将通过“是的，我们必须”联盟、南卡罗来纳州高级技术教育中心（SCATE）卓越中心、国家和区域会议上的演讲以及同行评审期刊上的预期出版物提供。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 Coker University (CU), a four-year private liberal arts institution, and Florence Darlington Technical College (FDTC), a two-year technical college. Over a six-year duration, this project plans to fund scholarships to 48 full-time students pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in biology, computer science, mathematics, and chemistry at CU or an associate’s degree in general science at FDTC. First-year students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support at CU and associate’s and transfer students will receive up to two-year scholarships at FDTC and CU, respectively. The first two years of the project will feature collaborative, cross-institutional, and evidence-based activities including a three-tiered faculty/peer mentoring model, intrusive advising, first-year experience course, and a STEM symposia series. In addition, to boost science identity, community, STEM career awareness, persistence in STEM, retention, and transfer student capital (TSC) in FDTC-based scholars, the project team intends to create a cross-institutional living learning community. The final two years will further develop scholars’ scientific identity and belonging, promote career and research experiences, and prepare scholars for careers or graduate school in STEM through internships with industry, undergraduate research opportunities, and student ePortfolios. This project proposes a cross-institutional and scalable approach to improving retention, graduation, and transfer rates of low-income students who are underrepresented in STEM, including underrepresented minorities (URMs), and first generation in their families to attend college. To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several specific aims. First is increased enrollment of domestic, low-income, academically-talented students in both CU and FDTC STEM majors of focus. Second is adaptation and implementation of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to increase retention, persistence, transfer, and graduation rates for Pee Dee scholars. And third is increased numbers of low-income, academically talented STEM graduates from the Pee Dee region who enter the STEM workforce or seek advanced STEM degrees after graduation. Despite the wealth of data showing the challenges encountered by low-income community college students who seek to transfer to four-year colleges and earn bachelor’s degrees, there remains a dearth of information related to the cross-institutional strategies to support low-income students in the transfer process and completion of a four-year degree. Very few studies have sought to estimate the effects of cross-institutional partnerships between a two- and a four-year college on transfer student bachelor completion rates. This project will advance understanding of the main factors that influence students’ self-efficacy and agency to complete a four-year degree in STEM by examining the existing barriers for low-income community college students. In particular, the project leadership will be guided by a central research question: "What factors contribute to success of low-income, transfer students in STEM?" The project investigators hypothesize that the combination of enhanced financial support coupled with evidence-based practices and rich cross-institutional engagement supported by the TSC framework will increase student success including persistence in STEM majors and overall retention in college. Furthermore, these practices are expected to lead to greater rates of matriculation into four-year and/or graduate and professional programs followed by employment in a STEM career. This project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data from institutional data, faculty, mentor, and student surveys and focus groups, pre- and post-tests, and graduation and placement data. Results of this project will be made available utilizing the "Yes We Must" Coalition, the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center (SCATE) Center of Excellence, and through presentations at national and regional conferences, and intended publications through peer-reviewed journals. 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.