Collaborative Research:New Pathways to STEM Careers in Southern Idaho

该项目将通过支持博伊西州立大学（Boise State University）和爱达荷州两所地理位置优越的社区学院——西爱达荷学院和南爱达荷学院（一所西班牙裔服务机构）——保留和毕业表现出经济需求的优秀低收入学生，从而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。这个合作项目的目标是在南爱达荷州形成一个高等教育联盟，为工程和计算机科学（ECS）学生提供响应性的招聘、保留和职业道路。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为136名攻读电子和计算机工程副学士学位和学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。转学生将在原合作社区学院获得2年奖学金，并将继续在博伊西州立大学获得学士学位。为了实现这一目标，该项目建立了一种基于队列的经验，为经济上符合条件、学术上有天赋的ECS学生提供奖学金支持。这些机构服务于该州西班牙裔人口比例最大的三个县，以及该州低收入农村人口的很大一部分。该合作项目将开发进入ECS职业的新途径，并创建一个教育生态系统，为具有学术潜力的低收入学生提供机会，追求有回报的ECS职业。这种方法将克服当前管道隐喻的已知限制，包括提供多个访问点和解决导致学生转向ECS学位以外的课程或完全离开大学的泄漏问题。在这些地区建立招聘和保留途径将有助于支持爱达荷州服务不足的人口。项目团队还将利用通过全州高级能源研究中心（CAES）开发的现有关系来创建CAES学者联盟。CAES学者联盟将建立新的途径来吸引和留住学生，增加低收入学生在ECS劳动力中的参与并使其多样化。该团队将专注于招聘、留用和职业发展的方法。CAES学者将是一个队列模型，通过全州联盟合作伙伴共享的一套共同活动，几乎连接在一起。每个队列将参与活动，围绕ECS项目的学生建立一个专业社区，与能源领域的专业人士（如爱达荷国家实验室）密切合作和指导。在接下来的几年里，高年级学生将成为同伴导师，帮助新生应对与过渡相关的挑战。研究部分调查了这些新途径如何提高自我效能感，特别是ECS识字和ECS身份之间的关系，以及随后的ECS保留。据推测，一个强大的ECS身份，增加访问和改善保留通过过渡的途径。该项目还将研究不同途径或初次入学的学生的学生经历和相关职业身份形成的差异。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 at Boise State University and two strategically located community colleges in Idaho, the College of Western Idaho and the College of Southern Idaho (a Hispanic-Serving Institution). The goal of this collaborative project is to form a higher education consortium across Southern Idaho that provides responsive recruiting, retention, and career pathways for engineering and computer science (ECS) students. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 136 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Transfer students will received a 2-year scholarship at the partner community college of origin and will continue to be funded for their Bachelor’s degree at Boise State University.Toward this goal, this project establishes a cohort-based experience with scholarship support for financially eligible, academically talented students in ECS programs These institutions serve three of the counties with the largest Hispanic population percentage in the state as well as a significant proportion of the state’s low-income rural population. This collaborative project will develop new accessible pathways into ECS careers and create an educational ecosystem that provides opportunities for low-income students with demonstrated academic potential to pursue a rewarding ECS career. This approach will counter known constraints of the current pipeline metaphor including providing multiple access points and addressing leaks that result in students pivoting to programs outside of an ECS degree or leaving college altogether. Creating recruiting and retention pathways in these areas will help support underserved populations in Idaho.The project team will also leverage existing relationships developed through the state-wide Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) to create a CAES Scholars Consortium. The CAES Scholars Consortium will establish new pathways to attract and retain students and to increase and diversify participation of low-income students in the ECS workforce. This team will focus on approaches to recruitment, retention, and careers. The CAES Scholars will be a cohort model that is connected virtually through a common set of activities shared across the consortium partners across the state. Each cohort will participate in activities to build a professional community around students in ECS programs with close collaboration and mentorship from professionals working in the energy sector, such as the Idaho National Laboratory. In subsequent years, upper-class students will become peer mentors to help newer students navigate the challenges related to transitions along the pathways. The research component investigates how these new pathways will improve self-efficacy, in particular the relationship between ECS literacy and ECS identity, and subsequent ECS retention. It is hypothesized that a strong ECS identity, increases access to and improves retention through the transitions along the pathways. The project will also examine how student experiences and related professional identity formation differ among students with different pathways or initial institution enrollment.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.