Sustained Cascade Mentoring in Mathematics

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，支持巴鲁克学院留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。巴鲁克于2022年被正式指定为拉美裔服务机构(HSI)，是拥有25个校区的纽约城市大学(CUNY)系统的一部分，CUNY既是美国最大的公立大学，也是美国最大的城市大学。在六年的时间里，这个项目将为12名正在攻读数学学士学位的全日制学生提供四年的奖学金。学者还将受益于新的和扩大的服务，包括学者们在巴鲁克的全部时间里提供的梯级指导，在世界文化中心之一开展的各种社会和群体建设活动，以及职业和研究准备。CASCADE指导模式最初包括教师指导学生，随着新的队列加入，增加同行指导。作为在数学和相关量化领域拥有相对较多学生的HSI，巴鲁克已做好充分准备，以实现STEM劳动力的多样化。此外，通过层叠指导方式赋予学者的独特领导力和教学经验将在学者中建立信心、领导技能和归属感，将他们送到各自领域的巅峰。该项目将产生关于级联辅导对数学专业学生坚持毕业的影响的新知识。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完成STEM学位。五个具体目标指导着项目的工作。首先是招收12名低收入、有学业天赋的学生(每组4人)，作为S学者进入巴鲁克学院的数学专业。第二是保留12名第一年奖学金中的至少10名到第二年，用新的参与者取代所有失去的奖学金。三是确保所有达到三年级的奖学金毕业生都毕业，四是确保所有奖学金毕业生在毕业一年内在与其专业相关的领域就业或进入STEM研究生课程。第五，也是最后一点，就数学课学生的级联辅导对保留率、毕业率以及社会和心理社会因素(如STEM的归属感)的影响进行了解。在这个项目中，一年级的学生将在入学后立即从密集的教师指导中受益，专注于适应大学生活，导航学者选择的专业，并在其专业范围内掌握早期的基础课程。在第二年，达到所有学业期望的学者将被邀请参加正式的辅导培训，以便他们可以在第二年的春季担任新学生的有偿导师并继续下去。虽然这样的方法在盟军医疗保健教育环境中得到了适度的使用和评估，但很少有证据表明它们在STEM环境中的应用和有效性，特别是数学。本项目将探讨级联辅导对学生的心理和社会影响，特别是实践对学生科学归属感、STEM自我效能感和STEM职业兴趣的影响。项目评估将审查对学生的影响以及在达到与招聘、GPA、留住、毕业、转学和职业/研究生院选择有关的已确定基准方面的进展。项目成果的传播将通过25个校区的城市大学系统和数学教育场所进行。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 Baruch College. Baruch was formally designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in 2022 and is part of the 25-campus City University of New York (CUNY) system, which is known as both the largest public university in the nation and the nation's largest urban university. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund four years of scholarships to 12 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Mathematics. Scholars will also benefit from new and expanded services, including cascade mentoring sustained for Scholars' entire time at Baruch, a variety of social and cohort-building activities in one of the world's cultural hubs, and career and research preparation. The cascade mentoring model initially involves faculty mentoring students, adding peer mentoring as new cohorts join. As an HSI with a relatively high number of students in Mathematics and related quantitative fields, Baruch is well poised to diversify the STEM workforce. Additionally, the unique leadership and instructional experience imparted to Scholars through cascade mentoring will build the confidence, leadership skills, and sense of belonging among Scholars to send them to the peaks of their fields. The project will generate new knowledge on the effects of cascade mentoring on persistence to graduation among students in Mathematics.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Five specific objectives guide the work of the project. First is to enroll 12 low-income, academically talented students (in three cohorts of four students) into Baruch College’s Mathematics major as S-STEM Scholars. Second is to retain at least 10 of 12 first-year Scholars into their second year, replacing all lost Scholars with new participants. Third is to graduate all Scholars who reach their junior year, and fourth is to ensure that all Scholar graduates are employed in fields related to their major or matriculate into STEM graduate programs within one year of graduation. Fifth, and finally, is to generate knowledge on the effects of cascade mentoring among students in Mathematics with respect to retention rates, graduation rates, and social and psychosocial factors such as a sense of belonging in STEM. In this project, first-year students will benefit from intensive faculty mentoring immediately upon matriculation, focusing on acclimating to college life, navigating Scholars' chosen major, and mastering early, foundational courses within their major. In year two, Scholars who have met all academic expectations will be invited to participate in formal mentoring training so that they can serve as paid mentors to newer students in the spring of their second year and continue thereon. While approaches like this have been used and evaluated in allied healthcare education environments to a moderate degree, there is little evidence of their application and efficacy in STEM settings, especially mathematics. This project will explore the psychological and social effects of cascade mentoring on the students, particularly the practice's impact on students' sense of belonging in the sciences, their feelings of self-efficacy in STEM, and their interest in STEM careers. Project evaluation will examine the impacts on students and progress in meeting the identified benchmarks related to recruitment, GPA, retention, graduation, transfer, and career/graduate school choices. Dissemination of project results will occur through the 25-campus CUNY system and math education venues. 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.