Cultivating Talent for Success in STEM

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要，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在马鞍峰学院的经济需要。马鞍峰学院是一个西班牙裔服务机构，具有多年的经验，解决影响低收入和代表性不足的学生的成功的障碍，特别是在干相关学科。在六年的时间里，该项目将为75名正在攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、工程、数学、自然科学和物理学副学士学位或转学学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。小学一年级的学生将获得两到三年的奖学金。除了奖学金外，该项目还将包括群体建设活动，以帮助提供学生之间的深层联系机会，以及学术和心理社会教师指导，这两者都被发现对支持服务不足的学生至关重要。这个项目的另一个重要特点是一个加速数学计划，支持学生在一年内准备微积分，这是加速相比，在加州社区学院的规范。该项目将评估这些支持和其他最佳实践的重要性，以提高STEM学生的学术成果。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生完成STEM学位的机会。该项目旨在为社区学院内越来越多的关于STEM教育和学生支持干预措施的文献做出贡献。目前的大部分研究都在考察适用于所有学生的教育方法是否成功。这个项目在两个主要方面是独一无二的。首先，该项目研究了奖学金，心理支持和数学课程完成对微积分准备的影响，这些微积分准备针对经济上有需要的学术天才STEM学生。第二，该项目将聚集，调整，并连接到一个连贯的和相互关联的网络支持学生在学院的各种成功的校园干预。一个严格的评估计划将分析定量的学生成果数据和定性的过程成果数据，以提供经验证据，证明一种更综合的方法来支持和准备社区学院的学生，以满足STEM进步的行业和学术标准的有效性。该项目将推进在社区学院环境中为本科STEM教育提供课程和支持服务的更大目标。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 Saddleback College. Saddleback College is a Hispanic Serving Institution with many years of experience addressing the barriers that impact the success of low-income and underrepresented students, particularly in STEM-related disciplines. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 75 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate’s degrees or transfer degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Physics. Primarily first year students will receive two-to-three-year scholarships. In addition to scholarships, the project will include cohort-building activities to help provide opportunities for deep connections between students, and academic and psychosocial faculty mentorship, both of which have been found to be critical in supporting underserved students. Another important feature of this project is an accelerated mathematics program that supports students getting to Calculus readiness in one year, which is accelerated compared to the norm in the California community colleges. The project will evaluate the importance of these supports and other best practices to achieve improved academic outcomes for STEM students.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 contribute to a growing body of literature on STEM education and student support interventions within community colleges. Much of the current research examines the success of education approaches as applied to all students. This project is unique in two major areas. First, the project examines the impact of scholarships, psychosocial support, and mathematics course completion to Calculus readiness targeted to financially needy academically talented STEM students. Second, this project will aggregate, align, and connect the various successful campus interventions into a coherent and interconnected web of support for students at the college. A rigorous evaluation plan will analyze quantitative student outcomes data and qualitative process outcomes data to provide empirical evidence on the efficacy of a more integrated approach to supporting and preparing community college students to meet industry and academic standards for STEM advancement. This project will advance the larger goals of providing curricular and supportive services in undergraduate STEM education in a community college environment. 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.