Increasing Perseverance and Retention of Computing and Engineering Students Through Service

该项目通过支持低收入、有学术天赋、有经济需求的技术专业学生，帮助满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、技术专家、工程师和数学家的需求。支持将以奖学金和广泛支持的形式提供，通过加强与教职员工和同学的关系来加强他们的社会资本，并通过参与社区服务来满足他们的特定需求。在六年的时间里，该项目将为24名全日制学生提供奖学金，这些学生正在攻读计算机工程、电气工程、计算机科学、信息技术、游戏设计开发和网络安全等专业的学士学位。学者将被选为一年级学生，并将获得最长四年的奖学金。具体的项目活动包括一项秋季前计划，该计划将侧重于更新学者的数学基础、数学辅导、队伍建设、教师指导、以游戏控制器设计、电子谜题或3D打印为中心的实验室研讨会、为学者提供的职业指导以及与STEM组织的社区参与。在社区参与方面，学者将参加实习，与康涅狄格州布里奇波特的几个社区合作伙伴合作，这些合作伙伴在放学后和暑假为低收入K-12学生提供学习机会。这个项目将考察实习将如何影响学者的STEM身份和对社会正义和服务学习的态度-随着时间的推移，它们如何影响学术表现，以及学者的个性如何在六年计划的持续时间内发生变化。将有三个队列，每个队列8名学生，总共24名独特的学者和96个独特的奖学金。通过上述奖学金和支持，圣心大学将为有经济需要的低收入、有才华的学者提供手段，让他们坚持自己的专业直到毕业，并支持其学者为在劳动力市场寻求职位或成功升入研究生院做准备。该计划有以下四个目标：(1)降低基础数学课程的辍学率，增加STEM专业留学生的第一年留存率；(2)提高S-STEM目标专业的学者的四年毕业率；(3)增加在地区公司作为新兴大四学生安排带薪暑期实习的学者数量，并在毕业后六个月内将学者安排到STEM工作岗位或研究生院项目。Shu具有在服务不足的社区进行服务学习的悠久传统，因此增加了第四个目标：(4)通过让学者有机会将STEM概念应用于有需要的社区，探索社区参与的影响。每个学生在第一年和第二年的暑假或寒假期间，每个学者将获得200个小时的以社区为中心的带薪实习。该项目包括一项严格的评价计划，以衡量形成和总结的进展情况，并将在国际服务学习和社区参与研究协会、全国黑人工程师协会、西班牙裔专业工程师协会、女工程师协会以及其他会议上传播其结果。它还计划在资助期过后继续提供成功的支持。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。该计划还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project contributes to meeting the national need for well-educated scientists, technology experts, engineers and mathematicians by supporting low-income, academically talented technology majors with demonstrated financial need. Support will be in the form of scholarships and extensive supports that address their specific needs by strengthening their social capital through stronger relationships with their faculty and fellow students and by engaging in community service. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 24 full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in majors such as Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Game Design Development, and Cybersecurity. Scholars will be selected as first-year students and will receive scholarships for up to four years. Specific project activities include a pre-fall program that will focus on refreshing scholars’ math foundation, math tutoring, cohort building, faculty mentoring, lab workshops centered around game controller design, electronic puzzles, or 3D printing, career guidance for scholars and community engagement with STEM organizations. For community engagement, scholars will participate in internships to work with several community partners in Bridgeport, Connecticut that offer learning opportunities after school and in the summer to low-income K-12 students. This project will examine how the internships will impact scholars’ STEM identity and attitudes regarding social justice and service-learning over time, how they impact academic performance and how scholars’ personalities change over the duration of the six-year program.There will be three cohorts of eight students per cohort for a total of 24 unique scholars and 96 unique scholarships. Through the aforementioned scholarships and supports, Sacred Heart University will provide the means for low-income, talented scholars with financial need to persist in their major to graduation and support its scholars in their preparation to pursue positions in the workforce or to successfully advance to graduate school. The program has the following four objectives: (1) Decrease the drop-fail-withdraw rates for foundational mathematics courses and increase the first-year retention of scholars retained in their STEM majors; (2) Increase the four-year graduation rate for scholars in any of the S-STEM targeted majors; (3) Increase the number of scholars placed in a paid summer internship as a rising senior at regional companies and place scholars in a STEM position in the workforce or a graduate school program within six months of graduation. SHU has a longstanding tradition of service-learning in underserved communities and thus added a fourth objective: (4) Explore the impact of community engagement by giving scholars the opportunity to apply STEM concepts in communities of need. Each student will reach 200 hours per summer or winter break of community-focused, paid internship per scholar in their first and second years in their program. This project includes a rigorous evaluation plan to measure formative and summative progress and will disseminate its findings at the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community-Engagement, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and at other conferences. It also plans to sustain successful supports beyond the funding period. 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.