HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Improving Professional Preparedness in STEM

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这条轨道2：IEP旨在增加加州州立大学多明格斯山（CSUDH）毕业后进入STEM领域的学生人数。多个群体，包括那些谁确定为拉丁裔，是在干的职业代表性不足;虽然拉丁裔个人占17%的工作人口，他们只有8%的干的工人。CSUDH准备帮助缩小这一差距，因为CSUDH为大约70%的拉丁裔学生提供服务。许多STEM教育举措都侧重于提高STEM学生的毕业率，特别是那些来自历史上边缘化群体的学生。然而，获得STEM学位并不一定意味着学生将进入STEM领域从事职业生涯。例如，目前，只有11%的学生在CSUDH生物系毕业与工作机会或接受研究生或专业学校。为了增加这一数字，该项目将增加公平获得和参与实习的机会，将以职业为重点的内容纳入整个课程，并将职业发展对话添加到特定学科的咨询中。通过这些举措，学生将在学术生涯的早期发展专业身份，并加强毕业后进入STEM职业所需的技能。最终，该项目将增加来自代表性不足群体的学生进入STEM领域的人数。直接目标是提高这些学生的专业准备，以增加他们在大学的投资回报，并使区域STEM劳动力多样化。该项目将采用多方面的方法，通过确保更多的学生深入参与实习和/或研究机会，包括更多的职业和专业技能发展课程，实施包容性咨询，并增加学生俱乐部的参与，帮助学生更好地实现他们的职业目标。据推测，学生如何看待他们的职业道路将影响他们是否有具体的职业规划时，他们毕业，学生保留，毕业时间。为了验证这些假设，该项目将利用混合模型评估和扎根理论来分析在学生学术生涯中收集的数据，以了解学生如何形成他们的职业规划。这个项目将扩大学生成功的衡量标准，不仅包括坚持到一定程度或过渡到研究生院，而且还包括“职业之路”。在这样做的过程中，该项目将提供急需的研究，对STEM中代表性不足的少数群体的一个未充分研究的方面：学生如何概念化他们的职业道路。更一般地说，生物系将作为培养STEM职业身份的最佳实践的孵化器。一旦更好地了解学生如何概念化他们的职业道路，以及哪些干预措施对以职业为中心的结果产生积极影响，项目结果将通过校园论坛和同行评议的期刊文章以及会议演示进行传播。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，并建立HSI的能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to increase the number of students from California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) who enter the STEM field after graduating. Multiple groups, including those who identify as Latinx, are underrepresented in STEM careers; while Latinx individuals comprise 17% of the working population, they are only 8% of STEM workers. CSUDH is poised to help close this gap because CSUDH serves a student population that is approximately 70% Latinx. Many STEM education initiatives have focused on increasing the graduation rates of STEM students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups. However, graduating with a STEM degree does not necessarily mean students will enter STEM fields for their careers. For example, currently, only 11% of students in the CSUDH Biology department graduate with a job offer or acceptance to graduate or professional school. To increase this number, the project will increase equitable access to and participation in internships, integrate career-focused content throughout the curriculum and add career development conversations to disciplinary-specific advising. Through these initiatives, students will develop a professional identity earlier in their academic careers and strengthen the skills needed to enter a STEM career after graduation. Ultimately, the project will increase the number of students from underrepresented groups entering STEM fields.The immediate objective is to increase the professional preparedness of these students in order to increase their return on investment in college and to diversify the regional STEM workforce. The project will use a multi-faceted approach to help students better realize their professional goals by ensuring that more students engage deeply in internships and/or research opportunities, include more career and professional skill development in courses, implement inclusive advising, and increase participation in student clubs. It is hypothesized that how students think about their career pathways will affect whether they have concrete career plans when they graduate, student retention, and time to graduation. To test these hypotheses, the project will utilize mixed-model assessments and grounded theory to analyze data collected throughout students’ academic careers to understand how students form their career plans. This project will expand the metrics of student success to not only include persistence to a degree or transition to graduate school, but also to “path to career.” In doing so, the project will provide much-needed research on one understudied aspect of underrepresented minority groups in STEM: how students conceptualize their pathway to a career. More generally, the biology department will serve as an incubator for best practices in developing STEM career identity. Once it is better understood how students conceptualize their career pathways, and which interventions positively affect career-focused outcomes, the project results will be disseminated through on-campus forums and peer-reviewed journal articles, and conference presentations. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.