BPE-Track 3: Inclusive mentoring hub for enabling pathways from inner-city and rural Appalachian households to engineering in Kentucky and West Virginia

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。贫穷和缺乏教育是城市内城区和农村阿巴拉契亚社区的特点，这限制了个人和社区的成长，并代代相传。克服这些通往成功的强大文化障碍的机会很少，这导致我们的STEM劳动力失去了重要的人才和智力能力。该项目将直接进入大学STEM课程以及城市和农村高中的课堂，向隐藏在视线中但不知道如何进行的未来工程师和科学家介绍STEM概念，研究方法和劳动力机会。通过与大学和高中教师合作，我们将确定有潜力和兴趣参与工程和STEM领域的学生，并直接为他们提供指导和经济援助。我们将特别关注那些由于缺乏家庭支持或基础学术技能差等生活困难而无法达到评分标准的边缘学生。我们将通过提供支持性的同伴社区、高中（教师研究员）和大学师生的指导以及引入技术内容，鼓励学生通过人际关系成长。该项目与扩大工程参与计划的目标直接一致，该计划不仅支持科学和工程研究，而且通过合作努力扩大工程科学的参与和公平，促进多样化和准备充分的STEM劳动力的专业发展。在整个项目中，我们的方法的有效性将被评估，以建立一个强大的模型，打破限制阿巴拉契亚市中心和农村社区的破坏性文化障碍，并为这些地区的学生提供可持续的STEM科学途径。在项目完成后，这些知识以及我们与大学和高中教师建立的关系将继续为学生提供进入我们的课程和大学的途径。为了帮助从城市到农村的学生克服障碍，获得工程和STEM职业，我们提出了一个包容性的指导中心，由具有服务使命的大学领导，支持这些学生，包括肯塔基州的路易斯维尔大学、肯塔基大学和西弗吉尼亚州的马歇尔大学。我们将在多个层面建立师徒关系，包括大学教师、高中教师、同龄学生，以及来自市中心社区和阿巴拉契亚农村的学生之间的师徒关系，目标是为边缘化学生提供支持，并为个人和社区的STEM发展提供支持。通过发展大学和高中教师之间的关系，我们将在高中课堂上引入技术概念和潜在的劳动力机会，并招募边缘化学生提供指导和支持机会。这些学生将参加一个为期10个月的包容性指导计划，旨在提高他们对STEM的理解，并支持他们将自己视为工程和STEM劳动力中有能力的参与者。在整个项目中，我们的教学方法将由专业的学习和教学人员进行评估，以改进我们项目设计的各个方面。在为期5年的项目中，我们预计将影响35名本科生、35名研究生、35名高中教师和800多名高中生，同时开发一个模板和一个合作网络，为来自阿巴拉契亚内城和农村地区的边缘化学生带来包容和公平的可持续途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Poverty and lack of education are characteristics of both urban inner-city and rural Appalachian neighborhoods which limit individual and community growth and cycle through generations. There are few opportunities for overcoming these strong cultural barriers to success which results in a loss of significant talent and intellectual capacity from our STEM workforce. This project will reach directly into the university STEM curriculum and the classrooms of inner-city and rural high schools to introduce STEM concepts, research methods, and workforce opportunities to the future engineers and scientists who are hidden in plain sight but do not know how to proceed. By working with university and high school faculty, we will identify students with the potential and interest to participate in engineering and STEM fields and directly support them with mentoring and financial assistance. We will specifically focus our efforts on reaching marginalized students who are not at the top of the grading scale due to life struggles such as lack of family support or poor base academic skills. We will encourage student growth through relationships, by offering a supportive peer community, and mentoring by high school (Teacher Fellows) and university faculty and students, and also through introduction of technical content. This project directly aligns with the Broadening Participation in Engineering program goals of not only supporting research in science and engineering but of broadening participation and equity in engineering sciences through collaborative endeavors which foster professional development of a diverse and well prepared STEM workforce. Throughout the program, the effectiveness of our methods will be evaluated to build a strong model for breaking the destructive cultural barriers limiting inner-city and rural Appalachian communities and facilitating a sustainable pathway to the STEM sciences for students from these regions. Upon completion of the project, this knowledge and the relationships we have established with university and high school faculty will continue to provide a pathway for students to our programs and universities. With an overarching goal of assisting students from the urban to rural gradient in overcoming barriers to attaining engineering and STEM careers, we propose an inclusive mentoring hub that is led by universities with service missions to support these students, including the University of Louisville in Kentucky, University of Kentucky, and Marshall University in West Virginia. We will establish mentoring relationships across multiple levels including college faculty, high school teachers, peer students, and between students from inner-city neighborhoods and rural Appalachia with a goal of providing support for marginalized students and providing scaffolding to support STEM development in individuals and communities. Through developing relationships between university and high school faculty, we will introduce technical concepts and potential workforce opportunities in high school classrooms and recruit marginalized students for mentoring and support opportunities. These students will participate in a 10-month inclusive mentoring program designed to improve their STEM understanding and support their transition to viewing themselves as capable participants in the engineering and STEM workforce. Throughout the program, our methods will be evaluated by learning and teaching professionals to improve all aspects of our program design. During the 5-year program, we anticipate impacting 35 undergraduate students, 35 graduate students, 35 high school teachers, and over 800 high school students while developing a template and a collaborative network for a sustainable pathway bringing inclusion and equity to marginalized students from the inner-city and rural Appalachian regions.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.