Networking and Computing: Scholarships and Support for Computing Students

该项目将通过支持明尼苏达大学德卢斯分校表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为满足全国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。该项目为期6年，将为19名攻读计算机科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金，第一年的学生将获得4年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在提高学生4年计算机科学学位的完成率，并将他们与符合他们兴趣和目标的职业联系起来，并使他们感到满意和有意义。该项目将奖学金支持与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括同伴指导、特定学科的交流机会和技能发展、本科生研究、参加国内和国际专业会议以及金融知识支持。在导师的帮助下，学生将继续建立归属感和职业认同感，并将从事职业探索，以促进他们的学位完成和过渡到劳动力市场。该项目还将支持加强对所有同行、计算机科学教师和计算机科学行业专业导师的导师培训，并增加旨在提高计算机科学一年级学生保留率的学术支持。由于明尼苏达大学德卢斯分校的女性人数众多，以及美国原住民和其他代表性不足的群体的学生，该项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与，并了解如何增加学生的归属感、职业认同感和网络能力，以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、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。有三个具体的目标：1)将参与项目的计算机科学学生的保留率和毕业率提高到90%；2)帮助学生获得符合他们兴趣和目标的计算机科学工作，找到有价值的职业，并在毕业后实现社会流动性；3)产生关于增加学生归属感，职业认同感和网络能力的因素的新知识。众所周知，指导、本科研究和网络可以积极影响学生在STEM领域的坚持。然而，对于低收入的、有学术天赋的计算机科学专业学生来说，这些因素是如何影响学生坚持学习的，人们知之甚少，尤其是在通过分层的、以发展为重点的项目提供的情况下，该项目由同辈、教师和行业专业导师的指导培训提供支持。该项目将调查这些因素如何与学生的归属感、职业身份和网络能力相对应，以及这些因素如何反过来与学生的坚持和进入该领域相对应。该项目有可能促进对增加低收入学生毕业和进入计算机科学领域的机制的理解，并开发新知识，为更广泛的国家STEM教育界提供信息。该项目将采用混合方法进行评估，使用来自调查、焦点小组和有关学生参与的机构数据的信息。该项目的成果将通过在科学会议上的演讲、在科学和教育期刊上发表的文章、项目网站、社交媒体以及在校园和社区论坛上的演讲等方式公布。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 the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 19 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, with first year students receiving 4 years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase students’ 4-year degree completion in computer science and to connect them with careers that are aligned with their interests and goals, and that they find satisfying and meaningful. The project links scholarship support with effective support activities including peer mentoring, discipline specific networking opportunities and skill development, undergraduate research, participation in national and international professional conferences, and financial literacy support. With the help of mentors, students will continue to build a sense of belonging and professional identity and will engage in career exploration to facilitate their degree completion and transition into the labor market. The project will also support enhanced mentor training for all peer, computer science faculty, and computer science industry professional mentors, and increased academic support aimed at improving first-year student retention in computer science. Because the University of Minnesota at Duluth has a high population of women, as well as Native Americans and students from other underrepresented groups, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how increasing students’ sense of belonging, professional identity, and networking capabilities support the retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are three specific aims: 1) to increase retention and graduation to 90 percent among computer science students participating in the project, 2) to assist students to attain a computer science job matching their interests and goals, find a rewarding career, and achieve social mobility after graduation, and 3) to generate new knowledge about factors that will increase students' sense of belonging, professional identity, and networking capabilities. It is generally known that mentoring, undergraduate research, and networking can positively affect student persistence in STEM. However, little is known about how each of these affect student persistence for low-income, academically talented students in computer science, especially when offered via a tiered, developmentally keyed program that is buttressed by mentorship training for peer, faculty, and industry professional mentors. The project will investigate how these factors correspond to students’ sense of belonging, professional identity, and networking capabilities and how these factors in turn correspond to student persistence and entry into the field. This project has the potential to advance the understanding of mechanisms that increase low-income students’ graduation and entry into the computer science field, and to develop new knowledge that will inform the broader national STEM education community. The project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach using information from surveys, focus groups, and institutional data regarding student participation. Results of this project will be made available via presentations at scientific conferences, articles published in scientific and educational journals, the project website, social media, and presentations on campuses and in community forums. 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.