Collaborative Planning to Support Talented, Low-income Graduate Students Being Employed while Completing their Degrees

该项目将通过支持蒙大拿州立大学博兹曼分校、蒙大拿州立大学比林斯分校、蒙大拿大学、蒙大拿理工大学和萨利什·库特奈学院的优秀低收入学生留校和毕业，为国家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。在为期一年的时间里，这个合作项目将发展一个合作网络，规划和建设基础设施，这将成为S-STEM第三轨道提案的基础，该提案旨在为在蒙大拿州攻读工程和物理、数学、生物、环境和心理科学研究生学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。与蒙大拿州高科技商业联盟和其他全州范围的雇主组织合作，新的硕士学生除了在该州STEM行业的增长部门就业外，还将获得前三个学期的奖学金。学生将在暑期全职受雇，在学年期间兼职。学生焦点小组、与商界领袖的会议、与部落社区的倾听会议将发展对低收入学生面临的优势和挑战的共同理解，加强关系，并最终提供基于低收入学生(包括土著学生)、农村和保留社区以及区域经济之间互惠的计划设计。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的毕业生的STEM学位完成率。低收入家庭的学生在接受研究生教育时面临很多障碍，包括资金不足、担心学生债务、全职工作的压力以及对研究生院“隐性课程”的了解有限。远离教育或工业中心的农村地区的学生可能更不愿意离开家人和社区去追求STEM高等教育和职业。这种人才的流失对STEM行业产生了不利影响，因为低收入、高成就的学生本来可以为这些行业带来相当大的优势。为了填补这一空白，该项目将探索私营高科技行业与硕士水平的STEM学位项目之间的创新合作伙伴关系如何同时帮助农村地区的低收入学生充分发挥他们的潜力，并满足关键的劳动力需求。通过与全州各地的机构合作，学生可能只需在本科生和研究生院之间走动很短的距离，就可以保持与所在社区的密切联系，同时受益于财政资源、社会资本，并帮助驾驭复杂的机构流程。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 Montana State University-Bozeman, Montana State University-Billings, University of Montana, Montana Technological University, and Salish Kootenai College. Over its one-year duration, this collaborative project will develop a collaborative network, plan, and build the infrastructure that will form the basis for a Track-3 S-STEM proposal to fund scholarships for full-time students pursuing graduate degrees in engineering and physical, mathematical, biological, environmental, and psychological sciences across Montana. In partnership with the Montana High Tech Business Alliance and other state-wide employer organizations, new master's students will receive scholarships for the first three semesters of their studies in addition to employment in growing sectors of the state’s STEM industry. Students will be employed full-time in the summer and part-time during the academic year. Student focus groups, meetings with business leaders, and listening sessions with tribal communities will develop shared understandings of strengths and challenges that low-income students face, enhance relationships, and ultimately inform a plan design grounded in reciprocal benefits between low-income students (including indigenous students), rural and reservation communities, and regional economies.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving graduates with demonstrated financial need. Low-income students face many barriers to graduate education, including insufficient finances, concerns about student debt, pressure to work full-time, and limited knowledge of the “hidden curriculum” of graduate school. Students in rural regions far from educational or industry hubs may be further reluctant to move away from their families and communities to pursue STEM higher education and careers. This loss of talent adversely impacts STEM industries due to the considerable strengths that low-income, high-achieving students could otherwise bring to these sectors. To fill this gap, this project will explore how innovative partnerships between private high-tech industry and master’s-level STEM degree programs can simultaneously help low-income students in rural contexts achieve their full potential and meet critical workforce needs. By engaging institutions across the state, students may need to move only short distances between their undergraduate and graduate schools and can remain close to their communities while benefitting from financial resources, social capital, and help navigating complex institutional processes. 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.