The STEM Core Experience: Fostering STEM talent through community building and wellness support

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求，通过支持在平头谷社区学院（FVCC）表现出经济需求的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。FVCC服务于高等教育机构和社会经济机会有限的农村地区。在6年的时间里，该项目将为30名正在攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、工程学、法医学、林业、地质学、数学和物理学副学士学位的全日制和非全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得长达三年的奖学金支持。该项目将通过一对一的教师指导和STEM学习社区培养学生的STEM身份，提高学生的坚持性并转入4年制大学。学生还将有机会获得心理健康和健康辅导，以帮助提高干保留和弹性。该项目将通过培养包容性的课堂环境，支持学术成功和提高STEM劳动力技能，为学者，FVCC和整个地区提供直接利益。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目旨在提高STEM学生的持续性，保留率，副学士学位毕业率和转移率，以更好地为未来的STEM职业做好准备。该项目将采用综合方法来支持学者，包括三个主要组成部分：奖学金，STEM身份和社区建设，以及心理健康和健康咨询。奖学金将增加学生的偿债能力，减少财务压力。该项目将建立STEM学习社区，提供共同的第一年课程和强大的STEM座谈会沿着一对一的教师指导。这些组成部分预计将促进STEM身份和归属感，这两者都是持久性和保留的预测因素。学生还将与心理健康顾问联系，定期进行健康辅导，以提高学生的适应力和幸福感。通过这些课外活动，该项目有可能促进对STEM身份，心理健康，持久性，保留和弹性之间的联系的理解，以追求STEM学位。该项目的结果也可以为当地高中和农村社区大学提供一个模式，通过心理健康支持来促进学生的成功。这些联系将由项目领导团队和外部评估人员使用混合方法设计进行调查。该项目的结果将通过地方会议、区域和国家介绍以及在适当的期刊上发表的方式提供给所有适当的利益攸关方。传播工作将酌情在FVCC、地区高中、社区论坛和其他场所进行。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 Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC). FVCC serves rural areas with limited access to institutions of higher education and socio-economic opportunity. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing Associate’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, forensic science, forestry, geology, mathematics, and physics. First-year students will receive up to three years of scholarship support. The project will increase student persistence and transfer to 4-year colleges by cultivating students’ STEM identity through one-on-one faculty mentorship and STEM learning communities. Students will also have access to mental health and wellness coaching to help improve STEM retention and resiliency. The project will provide immediate benefits to the scholars, FVCC, and the region at large by fostering inclusive classroom environments, supporting academic success, and improving STEM workforce skills. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project aims to increase the persistence, retention, Associate’s degree graduation rate, and transfer rate of STEM students to better prepare them for future STEM careers. This project will utilize an integrated approach to supporting scholars with three primary components: scholarships, STEM identity and community building, and mental health and wellness counseling. Scholarships will increase student solvency and decrease financial stress. The project will establish STEM learning communities with common first-year courses and a robust STEM colloquium along with one-on-one faculty mentoring. Those components are expected to foster STEM identity and sense of belonging, both of which are predictors of persistence and retention. Students will also be connected to a mental health counselor for regular wellness coaching with the aim of increasing student resilience and sense of well-being. Through these co-curricular offerings the project holds potential to promote understanding of the connection between STEM identity, mental health, and persistence, retention, and resiliency in the pursuit of a STEM degree. Results of the project may also provide a model for local high schools and rural community colleges looking to foster student success through mental health support. These connections will be investigated by the project leadership team and the external evaluator using a mixed methods design. Results of this project will be made available to all appropriate stakeholders via local meetings, regional and national presentations, and publication in appropriate journals. Dissemination efforts will take place at FVCC, regional high schools, community forums, and other settings, as appropriate. 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.