A Roadmap to Success in STEM: Support for Mental Well-being, Academic Achievement, and Professional Development

该项目将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，方法是支持在韦斯特菲尔德州立大学(WSU)留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。在为期5年的时间里，该项目将为12名全日制学生提供奖学金，分成两组，攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、环境科学和数学方面的学士学位。每个学生都可以获得长达五年的奖学金支持。该项目将通过改善和加强四个机构支持支柱：财务、学术、社会和职业发展，帮助学生培养在学业和职业上取得成功所需的自信和工作与生活平衡技能。通过心理健康素养促进学生成功是该项目的核心，并将增加关于心理健康如何影响学生留校、毕业和职业道路的知识基础。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。该项目将通过以下目标提高STEM学生的成功，重点是学生成功的四大支柱。首先是招收12名学业有前途的低收入家庭学生，主修生物、化学、计算机科学、环境科学或数学，加入奖学金计划。第二是留住并毕业至少80%的学者(12人中的10人)。第三，通过注重网络、专业发展和职业准备的活动，在毕业一年内将至少80%的学者安排在STEM职业生涯或研究生院。第四，也是最后一点，是建立一个重视心理健康意识的学者和教职员工社区。学生们将被告知改善心理健康的终身策略。教师将获得对心理健康素养的更多理解，将这些知识转化为教学实践，以支持学生的心理健康。该项目的主要重点是创造一种重视心理健康的文化，将其作为一种支持战略，帮助确保学者在学术和职业生涯中取得成功，拟议的项目旨在促进STEM领域学生和教职员工的心理健康素养。随着心理健康素养的提高和导致心理幸福感的技能和实践的应用将允许更大的可能性实现改善STEM的学习、认同感和未来的职业成功，评估将包括审查咨询中心提供的项目战略、包括Koru正念工作坊的健康课程、将正念练习纳入STEM课程以及其他以健康为重点的活动和机会。项目成果将通过以STEM教育为重点的出版物和场所向WSU内部利益攸关方、社区成员和更广泛的学术界广泛传播。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 Westfield State University (WSU). Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 12 unique full-time students, in two cohorts, pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, and mathematics. Each student can receive up to five years of scholarship support. The project will help students develop the confidence and work-life balance skills needed to be successful academically and professionally through improving and building upon four pillars of institutional support: financial, academic, social, and professional development. Promoting student success through mental health literacy is central to this project and will add to the knowledge base of how mental well-being impacts student retention, graduation, and career pathways.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will increase STEM student success through the following objectives, focusing on four pillars of student success. Fist is to recruit 12 academically promising, low-income students majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, or mathematics into the scholarship program. Second is to retain and graduate at least 80% of scholars (10 of 12). Third is to place at least 80% of the scholars in a STEM career or graduate school within one year of graduation through activities that focus on networking, professional development, and career readiness. Fourth, and finally, is to build a community of scholars and faculty who value mental health awareness. Students will be informed about life-long strategies to improve mental health. Faculty will gain increased understanding of mental health literacy, translating that knowledge into pedagogical practices to support student mental health. With a primary focus on creating a culture that values mental well-being as a support strategy that helps to ensure the academic and career success of the scholars, the proposed project seeks to promote mental health literacy among students and faculty within the STEM fields. With the hypothesis that increases in mental health literacy and the application of skills and practices that lead to a sense of mental well-being will allow for a greater likelihood of realizing improved STEM learning, identity, and future career success, the evaluation will include reviewing project strategies provided by the Counseling Center, the Wellness Course that includes the Koru Mindfulness Workshops, the incorporation of mindfulness exercises in the STEM courses, and other wellness-focused events and opportunities. Project results will be disseminated widely to WSU internal stakeholders, community members, and the broader scholarly community through publications and venues focusing on STEM education. 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.