Fostering Belonging, Competency, Leadership at an All-Women’s College: the Marie Curie III Scholarship Program

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明经济需要在圣玛丽学院在奥马哈，NE。圣玛丽学院是一所私立女子大学，致力于帮助女性实现她们的潜力和自我价值，确定领导优势，并在职业和生活中找到满足感。在六年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读生物学、化学或数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。每位被选为玛丽居里奖学金获得者的一年级学生将获得为期4年的奖学金。在整个学习过程中，将进行研究，以检查在何种程度上参与该计划的每个组成部分影响学生对自己在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的归属感，自我评估自己的科学和数学能力，以及对自己追求和坚持STEM事业的能力的信心。该项目将为每一批学者提供一个有针对性的四年计划，帮助学生为STEM课程的成功做好准备，激励他们探索STEM领域的不同职业，为教师和行业合作伙伴提供研究和/或工作经验，并帮助学者找到工作和/或研究生院。将在学者和非学者队列中比较玛丽居里学者的数据。该项目将促进对妇女教育经验的认识和理解，涉及：（1）使用综合STEM课程的做法，研究，和共同课程设计，具体到基于队列的学习和（2）高度参与和真实的STEM职业和研究生-学校探索活动，强调公共机会和目标导向。该项目的总体目标是提高STEM学位完成低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要。具体而言，该项目将评估参与STEM经验，培训和接触STEM职业的程度影响攻读生物学，化学或数学学士学位的女本科生的保留，以及他们的社区和代理目标取向和STEM职业目标的可供性的变化。根据角色一致性理论，女性（和男性）会形成性别角色一致性目标，从而导致职业兴趣的性别差异。妇女更赞同集体目标，而不是代理目标。这导致了STEM领域的性别差距，因为这些职业通常被视为提供代理而不是社区目标。研究人员计划从横截面和纵向两个方面来研究这些关系。本项目将探讨以下研究问题：（1）STEM的经验和培训是否与社区和代理目标取向以及对STEM职业目标启示的看法有关？(2)STEM的经验和培训是否与STEM职业被视为提供社区和代理目标的程度的看法随着时间的推移而发生变化有关？(3)STEM的经验和培训是否与STEM的归属感/适应性有关？(4)STEM的经验和培训，社区和代理目标取向，以及对STEM目标启示的感知，是否预示着对STEM更大的归属感和兴趣？该项目将为参与者提供一个为期四年的计划，该计划将提供额外的学术支持，让学生接触各种STEM专业，发展当地STEM专业人员网络，提供培训和研究经验，确保实习机会，并协助就业或继续STEM教育。项目研究人员将评估参与这些体验对学生对STEM适合度、目标导向和职业启示的感知的影响程度。这项研究的结果也将促进编程的保留，毕业率，实现学术/职业安置的影响的理解，并在非医疗STEM职业生涯的职业适应和目标导向的看法。该项目的成果将发表在同行评审期刊上，并通过在区域和国家STEM和心理学会议上的研究报告传播。评估和研究工作的进展将得到广泛传播，以改善女性的本科STEM教育，并有助于发展多元化，有竞争力的STEM劳动力。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 College of Saint Mary in Omaha, NE. The College of Saint Mary is a private all-women’s university dedicated to helping women realize their potential and self-worth, identify leadership strengths, and find fulfillment in careers and lives. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique fulltime students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, or Mathematics. Each first-year student selected as a Marie Curie Scholar will receive a 4-year scholarship. Throughout the course of their studies, research will be conducted to examine the extent to which participation in each of the program’s components impacts students’ perception of their own belonging in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), self-assessment of their own science and mathematic competency, and confidence in their ability to pursue and persist in STEM careers. This project will provide an intentional four-year plan for each cohort of Scholars that will help prepare students for success in STEM courses, inspire them to explore different careers in STEM fields, provide research and/or work experience with faculty and industry partners, and aid the Scholars with job and/or graduate school placement. Data on Marie Curie Scholars will be compared across Scholar and non-Scholar cohorts. This project will advance knowledge and understanding of the educational experiences of women in relationship to (1) practices using an integrated STEM curriculum, research, and co-curricular design specific to cohort-based learning and (2) highly engaged and authentic STEM career and graduate-school exploration activities with an emphasis on communal opportunities and goal orientation.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project will assess the extent to which participation in STEM experiences, training, and exposure to STEM careers affects the retention of female undergraduate students pursing bachelor’s degree in Biology, Chemistry, or Mathematics as well as changes in their communal and agentic goal orientations and STEM career goal affordances. According to role congruity theory, women (and men) form gender-role congruent goals, which leads to gender differences in career interests. Women endorse communal more than agentic goals. This results in a gender gap in STEM fields as such careers are typically viewed as affording agentic rather than communal goals. The researchers plan to examine these relationships both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. This project will examine the following research questions: (1) Are experience and training in STEM related to communal and agentic goal orientations and perceptions of STEM career goal affordances? (2) Are experience and training in STEM related to change over time in perceptions of the extent to which STEM careers are perceived as affording communal and agentic goals? (3) Are experience and training in STEM related to greater belonging/fit in STEM? (4) Do experience and training in STEM, communal and agentic goal orientations, and perceptions of STEM goal affordances predict greater perceived belonging and interest in STEM? The project will provide participants with an intentional four-year plan that will provide additional academic support, expose students to a variety of STEM professions, develop a network of local STEM professionals, provide training and research experiences, secure internships, and assist in job placement or continued STEM education. Project researchers will assess the extent to which participation in each of these experiences affects students’ perception of STEM fit, goal orientation, and career affordances. The results of this study will also advance understanding of programming’s impact on retention, graduation rates, achieved academic/career placement, and perception of career fit and goal orientation in non-medical STEM careers. The outcomes of this project will be published in peer-review journals and disseminated through research presentations at regional and national STEM and psychology conferences. Advances from evaluative and research efforts will be disseminated widely to improve undergraduate STEM education for women and contribute to the development of a diverse, competitive STEM workforce. 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.