Scholarships and Mentoring to Advance Retention and Training in Support of Low-income STEM Students

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在洛克赫斯特大学，一所私立文科大学位于堪萨斯城，密苏里州的城市核心的经济需要。在6年的时间里，该项目将为20名攻读生物学、化学或物理学学士学位的全日制本科生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持，转学生将获得大约两年的奖学金。该项目旨在通过使用队列模型和利用增强的学生支持机制来提高学生的成功率。学生将受益于校友和行业联系的广泛网络，以帮助鼓励在STEM领域的坚持，并加强他们的专业网络。此外，该项目的一个核心组成部分是以多样性，公平性，包容性和心理健康培训为中心的教师和同行指导计划。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目的目标是：1）招募和招收20名学生分为两个队列，2）通过同行和教师指导计划增加这些队列中的学生支持，3）增加与校友和行业联系人的网络联系，以促进STEM职业，4）增加1年保留率和4年毕业率这些队列中的学生，以及5）传播关于队列模型如何影响STEM劳动力或研究生院的保留，毕业和毕业后安置的知识。队列模式已成功地用于高等教育，以帮助学生取得成功，但往往不是为私立文科院校中代表性不足的低收入学生量身定制的，学费价格往往是低收入学生的一个重大障碍。该计划将使学者从一个包容和支持的校园社区中受益，这将增加毕业后坚持STEM职业的可能性。该项目还将确定教师和同伴指导队列模型，结合其他大学支持，是否会影响生物学，化学和物理学学者的1年保留率和4年毕业率。教师导师的多样性，公平，包容性和心理健康培训将进行评估，以了解这种培训，结合特定学科的指导，可以积极影响学生的成功，并增加他们的归属感。该项目将使用调查和其他既定的措施，为学生和教师导师进行评估。该项目的结果将在全国会议上展示，并提交在同行评审期刊上发表。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 scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Rockhurst University, a private liberal arts university located in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 20 full-time undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, or physics. First year students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support and transfer students will receive approximately two-years of scholarships. The project aims to increase student success by using a cohort model and leveraging enhanced student support mechanisms. Students will benefit from an extensive network of alumni and industry contacts to help encourage persistence in STEM fields and strengthen their professional network. In addition, a central component of the project is a faculty and peer mentoring program centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and mental health training. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The objectives of this project are to: 1) recruit and enroll 20 total students into two cohorts, 2) increase student support in these cohorts with a peer and faculty mentoring program, 3) increase network connections with alumni and industry contacts to promote STEM careers, 4) increase 1-year retention and 4-year graduation rates for students in these cohorts, and 5) disseminate knowledge on how the cohort model impacts retention, graduation, and post-graduation placement in STEM workforce or graduate school. Cohort models have been successfully used in higher education to help students succeed but often are not tailored for low-income students from underrepresented populations at private liberal arts institutions, where the price of tuition is often a significant barrier for low-income students. This program will allow scholars to benefit from an inclusive and supportive campus community which will increase the likelihood of persistence in STEM careers after graduation. This project will also identify if a faculty and peer mentoring cohort model, combined with other university supports, impacts 1-year retention and 4-year graduation rates for biology, chemistry, and physics scholars. The faculty mentor diversity, equity, inclusion, and mental health training will be assessed to understand if this training, combined with discipline-specific mentoring, can positively impact students' success, and increase their sense of belonging. The project will be evaluated using surveys and other established measures for both students and faculty mentors. Results of this project will be presented at national meetings and submitted for publication in peer reviewed journals. 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.