Supporting Students’ Academic and Career Success with a Sustainable Energy Focus

该项目将通过支持在天普大学有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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。坦普尔大学是一所城市公立大学，位于宾夕法尼亚州费城，为大约30,000名本科生和10,000名研究生提供服务。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为34名攻读电气工程学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。第一年的学生将获得四年的奖学金。可持续寺庙能源和电力学者（STEPS）项目将提供重点同行，教师和行业指导，将支持学者直到毕业。对于拟议的项目来说，至关重要的是13个本地行业合作伙伴的参与，他们有兴趣为合格的毕业生提供就业机会，并在他们的学术生涯中促进专业发展机会。虽然努力主要集中在招收和支持S-STEM学者，但STEPS项目最终将有助于建立一个全校范围的框架，以增加电气和计算机工程系（ECE）和工程学院的多样性和学生的成功，而不是S-STEM奖项。改变学生家庭和社区对大学和职业可能性的看法的潜力提供了额外的影响。此外，STEPS的本地行业联系可以被附近的其他机构利用，以改善合格的STEM毕业生进入当地STEM劳动力的管道。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。为了实现这一总体目标，该项目将努力实现三个目标：(1)通过实施一个全面的、有针对性的招聘计划，利用行业合作伙伴关系，并利用现有的欧洲经委会学生作为同龄人的榜样，增加低收入、有学术天赋的学生的入学人数；(2)通过让低收入、有学术天赋的学生参与一套以证据为基础的课程和课外活动，并提供学习支持服务，提高他们在欧洲经委会的留校率和毕业率；(3)以实习和行业指导为基础，系统地支持学生在STEM领域的职业发展道路。STEPS将使用社会认知职业理论（SCCT）作为概念框架，以更好地理解影响学生学业和职业选择和坚持的因素。本研究计划拟以定性分析为主，以填补以定量研究为主的文献空白。一个健全的过程和结果评估将被用来监督和记录项目的计划和实施，这将有助于理解特定项目要素与STEPS学者预期的项目结果之间的关系。评估项目的分析框架包括从开始到结束的计划-过程-结果分析。项目成果的传播将包括一份执行指南、将在地方和国家会议上发表的关于经验教训的讲习班、同行评议的会议/期刊文章、以及访问其他地方高等教育机构。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。该项目还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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 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 Temple University. Temple is a public university in an urban setting, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving approximately 30,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 34 unique full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. First year students will receive four-year scholarships. The Sustainable Temple Energy and Power Scholars (STEPS) project will provide focused peer, faculty, and industry mentoring that will support scholars through to graduation. Of critical importance to the proposed project is the participation of 13 local industry partners interested in providing job placements to qualified scholars who graduate and facilitating professional development opportunities during their academic career. While efforts are primarily focused on enrolling and supporting S-STEM scholars, the STEPS project will ultimately contribute to building a college-wide framework to increase diversity and student success in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department and the college of engineering beyond the S-STEM award. The potential to change the perception of what is possible regarding college and careers for the scholars' families and community provides added impact. Additionally, STEPS' local industry contacts can be leveraged by other nearby institutions to improve the pipeline of qualified STEM graduates into the local STEM workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To achieve this overall goal, the project will work to accomplish three objectives: (1) increase enrollment into ECE of low-income, academically talented students by implementing a holistic, targeted recruitment plan that leverages industry partnerships and uses existing ECE students as peer role models; (2) increase retention and graduation rates in ECE of low-income, academically talented students by engaging them in a suite of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities infused with industry collaboration, and by providing support services for learning; and (3) systematically support student career pathways in STEM, using internships and industry mentorship as cornerstones. STEPS will use the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as a conceptual framework to gain a better understanding of factors that influence students’ academic and career choice and persistence. The research plan intends to use mainly qualitative analysis to accomplish this to fill a gap in the literature that is mainly based on quantitative studies. A robust process and outcomes evaluation will be employed to monitor and document program planning and implementation, which should aid in understanding the relationship(s) between specific program elements and intended program outcomes for the STEPS scholars. The analytic framework for evaluating the project consists of planning-process-outcome analyses from start to finish. Dissemination of the project results will include an implementation guide, a workshop on lessons learned to be delivered locally and at national conferences, peer reviewed conference/journal articles, and visits to other local institutions of higher education. 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. The program 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.