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有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进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。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为19名正在攻读计算机科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金，一年级学生将获得4年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在提高学生在计算机科学领域的四年制学位完成率，并将他们与与他们的兴趣和目标一致、令他们满意和有意义的职业联系起来。该项目将奖学金支持与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括同行指导、特定学科的网络机会和技能发展、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，并增加旨在改善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有大量女性、美国原住民和来自其他代表性不足群体的学生，该项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与度，并了解提高学生的归属感、职业认同感和网络能力如何支持这一学生群体的留住和毕业。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。该项目有三个具体目标：1)将参与该项目的计算机科学专业学生的留校率和毕业率提高到90%；2)帮助学生找到一份与他们的兴趣和目标相匹配的计算机科学工作，找到一份有价值的职业，并在毕业后实现社会流动性；3)产生有关因素的新知识，这些因素将增加学生的归属感、职业认同感和网络能力。众所周知，辅导、本科生研究和网络可以积极地影响学生在STEM中的坚持性。然而，对于低收入、在学业上有天赋的计算机科学学生来说，这些因素如何影响学生的毅力却知之甚少，特别是在通过分层的、以发展为重点的项目提供支持的情况下，该项目得到同行、教师和行业专业导师的导师培训的支持。该项目将调查这些因素如何与学生的归属感、职业认同感和网络能力相对应，以及这些因素如何反过来与学生的坚持不懈和进入该领域相对应。该项目有可能促进对提高低收入学生毕业和进入计算机科学领域的机制的理解，并开发将为更广泛的国家STEM教育界提供信息的新知识。该项目将使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陈述、在科学和教育期刊上发表的文章、该项目的网站、社交媒体以及在校园和社区论坛上的陈述来公布。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。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 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.