Supporting Undergraduates for Careers in Computing and Engineering with Scholarships and Supervision II

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在得克萨斯州农工大学科珀斯克里斯蒂（TAMUCC）的经济需要。TAMUCC是一个西班牙裔服务和少数民族服务机构在南德克萨斯州，服务佩尔合格和转学学生的大部分。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为24名正在攻读工程和计算机科学学士学位的一年级和转学本科生提供奖学金，并将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目以先前的S-STEM奖为基础，旨在通过有效的课外活动，如辅导、学术咨询、第一年学习社区、本科生研究、实习、专业发展研讨会、研究生院准备和科学会议，提高学生的保留率和学者的毕业率。该项目将通过一个以小组为基础的学习社区留住学者，并为新生和转学生提供量身定制的支持服务。在教师，行业和同行导师团队的支持下，学生将朝着毕业方向发展，并准备进入研究生院或劳动力市场。由于TAMUCC拥有大量代表性不足的西班牙裔学生，该项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与，并了解指导，第一年学习社区和研究如何支持这一学生群体的保留和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就本科生在STEM领域的学位完成率。 有三个具体目标。首先是招收24名低收入、有才华的本科生，包括新入学的新生和社区大学转学生，他们主修国家关键领域的工程和计算机科学。第二是保留学者在指定领域的学位成就。第三个目标是提高学者的毕业率。该项目将研究参与课外活动的影响，如第一年的学习社区，辅导，实习，研究经验和专业发展活动对保留和毕业率。项目结果将与之前的S-STEM队列以及相同专业的非学者进行比较。特别是，该项目有可能促进对工程和计算机科学一年级学习社区如何提高一年级学生保留率的理解。该项目的评价战略包括内部和外部程序，以确定对项目战略的方案调整和确定项目影响的总结性信息。研究结果将通过研讨会与校园社区分享，并在国家工程会议和教育期刊出版物上更广泛地传播。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 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). TAMUCC is a Hispanic-Serving and a minority-serving institution in South Texas that serves a large proportion of Pell eligible and transfer students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 24 first-year and transfer undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Computer Science and will receive up to four-years of scholarship support. Building on a prior S-STEM award, the project aims to increase student retention and graduation of scholars through effective co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, such as mentoring, academic counselling, first-year learning communities, undergraduate research, internships, professional development seminars, graduate school preparation and scientific conferences. The project will retain scholars through a cohort-based learning community augmented by support services tailored for freshmen and transfer students. With the support of a team of faculty, industry, and peer mentors, students will progress towards graduation and prepare to enter graduate school or the workforce. Because TAMUCC has a high population of underrepresented Hispanic students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how mentoring, first-year learning communities, and research, support retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. There are three specific aims. First is to recruit 24 low-income, talented undergraduates, including incoming freshmen and community college transfer students majoring in the nation’s critical fields of engineering and computer science. Second is to retain scholars to degree achievement in designated fields. The third objective is to increase the graduation rates of the scholars. The project will examine impacts of participating in co-curricular activities such as, the first-year learning community, mentoring, internships, research experiences and professional development activities on retention and graduation rates. Project results will be compared to the prior S-STEM cohorts as well as to non-scholars in the same majors. In particular, the project has the potential to advance understanding of how a first-year learning community in engineering and computer science increases retention of first-year students. The project’s evaluation strategies include both internal and external processes to determine programmatic adjustments to project strategies and summative information to determine the project's impact. The results will be shared with the campus community through seminars and disseminated more broadly at national engineering conferences and publications in education journals. 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.