Increasing the Success of Talented Engineering Students with Unmet Financial Need with Scholarships, Culturally-responsive Curriculum, and Mentoring

该项目将通过支持在德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（UTSA）的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的工程师的需求做出贡献。UTSA是西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）。在六年的时间里，该项目将为36名攻读生物医学工程和化学工程（BCE）学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。根据招生的组成，大多数资助的BCE学生将是第一代大学生，女性，西班牙裔或非洲裔美国人。奖学金将提供，以支付未满足的经济需要（UFN）的学生进入他们的第二学期新生年，并将持续到毕业。奖学金将与循证，文化响应和文化相关（CR2）课程以及课外活动相结合，以提高劳动力准备，包括包容性指导，体验式学习和领导力研讨会，自我效能，工程身份，职业咨询和就业安置。该项目预计将增加来自弱势社会经济背景的学生的数量，他们坚持并毕业于工程专业，在就业市场上有效竞争，为自己和家人提供经济保障，并帮助确保美国作为全球领导者的地位。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。经济需求给学生的带宽带来压力，导致相对于其他学生群体，毕业时间更长。为了减少这种压力并解决持久性和归属感的问题，将完成以下四个具体目标：（1）确定有才华的BCE学生与UFN作为奖学金获得者;（2）提高教师的意识和准备，以实施CR2课程和包容性的指导实践;（3）通过参与体验式学习机会和CR2学术项目和作业，支持学生工程身份的发展;（4）对项目进行严格的评估，并向工程教育界传播知识。完成后，该项目将增加对影响低收入学生的坚持，毕业和工程成功的因素的了解，并将揭示与以下相关的新知识：（1）积极的工程身份和领导力发展，（2）CR2体系的发展和建立CR2社区的转变，以及（3）对毕业进展的指标。预期的项目成果包括：（1）提高积极的工程身份，（2）增加在核心课程中制定和实施的CR2教学课程计划的数量，（3）提高学者的劳动力和研究准备程度;（4）提高奖学金获得者第一年目标课程的保留率，使其达到100%;及（5）将每一届英国剑桥教育学院学生的六年毕业率提高至90%。该项目将评估项目的执行情况以及项目活动对预期成果的影响。项目成果将由教师和学者使用混合战略向广泛的受众传播。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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 engineers by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). UTSA is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Over its six- year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 36 uniquely talented, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering (BCE). Based on the composition of enrollment, the majority of funded BCE students will be first generation college students, women, Hispanic, or African American. Scholarships will be provided to cover the unmet financial need (UFN) of students entering their second semester freshmen year and will continue until graduation. The scholarships will be coupled with evidence-based, culturally-responsive and culturally relevant (CR2) curriculum as well as co-curricular activities to enhance workforce readiness, including inclusive mentoring, experiential learning, and workshops for leadership, self-efficacy, engineering identity, career counseling and employment placement. This project is expected to increase the number of students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who persist and graduate in engineering, effectively compete in the job market, provide economic security to themselves and their families, and help secure the US’s place as a global leader.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Financial needs strain students’ bandwidth, leading longer times to graduation relative to other student populations. To decrease this strain and address issues of persistence and sense of belonging, the following four specific aims will be completed: (1) Identify talented BCE students with UFN as scholarship recipients; (2) Increase awareness and preparation of faculty for implementation of CR2 curriculum and inclusive mentoring practices; (3) Support the development of students’ engineering identities through participation in experiential learning opportunities and CR2 academic projects and assignments; and (4) Perform a rigorous assessment of the project, and disseminate knowledge to engineering education communities. Upon completion, this project will increase understanding of the factors that influence low-income students’ persistence, graduation, and success in engineering and will reveal new knowledge related to: (1) positive engineering identity and leadership development, (2) development of CR2 pedagogies and shifts in building a CR2 community, and (3) indicators for advancements towards progress to graduation. The desired project outcomes include: (1) Increasing positive engineering identity, (2) Increasing the number of CR2 pedagogical lesson plans developed and implemented within core curriculum, (3) Enhancing scholars’ workforce and research readiness; (4) Improving first-year retention rates in the targeted courses to 100% for scholarship recipients; and (5) Improving six-year graduation rates for BCE students to 90% in each cohort. The project will be assess the project’s implementation and impact of the project activities on the desired outcomes. The project outcomes will be disseminated by faculty and scholars using mixed strategies to a wide range of audiences. 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.