Unlimited Pathways to Biology & Mathematics in Southcentral Kentucky

该项目将通过支持林赛威尔逊学院（Lindsey Wilson College）有经济需要的优秀低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，为满足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。这所私立大学位于肯塔基州中南部的一个乡村小镇，服务于阿巴拉契亚地区经济困难和危险的县。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为15名攻读生物学或数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。三组五名一年级学生将获得四年奖学金。该项目旨在通过同伴导师、教师导师、补充指导以及实习或研究经验的支持，建立学生对学习的自主权。可以从额外准备中受益的低收入和第一代学生占林赛威尔逊学院学生人数的一半以上。该项目有可能评估旨在克服有前途的农村STEM学生大学前准备不足的支持的影响。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。众所周知，学生自主学习是大学和职业准备和成功的关键组成部分。自我导向的终身学习者有利于STEM劳动力。该项目将调查夏季桥梁项目、同伴和教师指导、补充指导以及实地考察和系列讲座等群体体验的影响，并通过留校率和毕业率以及其他数据来衡量。该项目将寻求确定有助于学生自主学习和提高自我指导的各种因素。通过对收集到的数据进行评估，传播关键要素和经验教训，该项目有可能促进对高潜力、农村、低收入、准备不足的学生如何成为STEM领域终身学习者的理解。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。它还旨在改善未来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 Lindsey Wilson College. This private college located in a small, rural town in south central Kentucky serves economically distressed and at-risk counties in Appalachia. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 15 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology or mathematics. Three cohorts of five first-year students will receive scholarships for four-years. The project aims to build student ownership of learning with the supports of peer mentors, faculty mentors, supplemental instruction, and internship or research experiences. Low-income and first-generation students who could benefit from additional preparation make up more than half of the student population at Lindsey Wilson College. This project has the potential to assess the impact of supports designed to overcome shortfalls in pre-college preparation for promising, rural STEM students.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Student ownership of learning is known to be a key component of college and career readiness and success. Self-directed, lifelong learners are advantageous to the STEM workforce. The project will investigate the impacts of a summer bridge program, peer and faculty mentorship, supplemental instruction, and cohort experiences such as field trips and a lecture series, as measured by retention and graduation rates as well as other data. The project will seek to identify the various factors that contribute to student ownership of learning and improved self-direction. Through the evaluation of collected data, and dissemination of key elements and lessons learned, the project has the potential to advance the understanding of how high-potential, rural, low-income, underprepared students can become life-long learners in STEM fields. 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.