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

该项目将通过支持罗克赫斯特大学留住并毕业于罗克赫斯特大学，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。罗克赫斯特大学是一所位于密苏里州堪萨斯城市中心的私立文科大学。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为20名攻读生物、化学或物理学士学位的全日制本科生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得最多四年的奖学金支持，转校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。学生将受益于校友和行业联系人的广泛网络，以帮助鼓励他们在STEM领域的坚持不懈，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一个以多样性、公平性、包容性和心理健康培训为中心的教职员工和同行指导计划。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。该项目的目标是：1)招募和招收总共20名学生进入两个队列；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职业生涯；4)提高这些队列中学生的一年保留率和四年毕业率；以及5)传播关于队列模式如何影响STEM劳动力或研究生院保留率、毕业率和毕业后就业的知识。队列模式已经成功地应用于高等教育，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做的，那里的学费往往是低收入学生的一个重大障碍。这项计划将使学者受益于包容和支持的校园社区，这将增加毕业后坚持STEM职业生涯的可能性。该项目还将确定教师和同行指导队列模式，以及其他大学支持，是否影响生物、化学和物理学者的一年保留率和四年毕业率。将评估教师导师的多样性、公平性、包容性和心理健康培训，以了解这种培训与特定学科的指导相结合是否可以对学生的成功产生积极影响，并增加他们的归属感。该项目将使用调查和其他针对学生和教师导师的既定措施进行评估。该项目的成果将在国家会议上提出，并提交同行评议的期刊发表。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 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.