Supporting Success and Diversity for Low Income Computer Education Students

该项目将通过支持威廉·雷尼·哈珀学院（哈珀）（位于芝加哥西北郊的一所西班牙裔服务机构）中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为满足全国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。该项目为期6年，将为大约40名攻读计算机科学和计算机信息系统副学士学位的全日制和非全日制学生提供奖学金。除了奖学金，该项目还将包括围绕支持和学术活动，以加强学生的学习。这些活动包括与其他奖学金获得者一起建造机器人，参加编程比赛，职业概述，以及教师的指导。通过额外的支持和活动，哈珀的目标是通过提高成绩、提高毕业率和提高转学到四年制大学的比率来提高奖学金获得者的成功率。该项目包括评估这些活动的成功，以确定其他学生和学术部门是否可以从中受益。哈珀试图通过向学生展示这些是可行的职业道路，来增加来自代表性不足的群体的学生在计算机科学和计算机信息系统专业的代表性。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。通过扩大低收入学生在计算机科学和计算机信息系统方面的机会，哈珀寻求通过财政支持和课外活动来改善奖学金获得者的学生成绩。奖学金将颁发给四组10名低收入家庭学生。有针对性的招聘将在当地高中进行，以鼓励来自这些领域中代表性不足的群体的学生申请。课外活动也被整合到课程中，为学生提供学术、社交和情感支持。这些活动包括但不限于职业概述、转学培训、编程竞赛、机器人工具包和教师指导。课外活动将通过教师指导和同伴联系提高保留率（预计至少为95%）。通过实施转会培训课程，预计转会率将至少达到35%。通过职业概述课程和强化课程学习，增加对职业选择的理解，毕业率预计至少达到80%。活动的有效性将根据奖学金群体的学生成绩与学院其他学生群体的比较以及通过年度调查来确定。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 William Rainey Harper College (Harper), a Hispanic Serving Institution in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to approximately 40 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing associate’s degrees in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems. In addition to the scholarships, this project will include wrap around support and academic activities that reinforce the students' learning. These include building robots with other scholarship recipients, attending programming competitions, career overviews, and mentoring from faculty members. With the additional support and activities, Harper aims to increase the scholarship recipients' success rates through higher grades, increased graduation, and increased transfer rates to a four-year university. The project includes evaluation of the success of these activities to determine if other students and academic departments could benefit from them. Harper seeks to increase representation of students from underrepresented groups in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems by showing students that these are viable career pathways.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. By expanding opportunities for low-income students in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems, Harper seeks to improve the student outcomes for the scholarship recipients through financial support and co-curricular activities. Scholarships will be awarded to four cohorts of ten low-income students. Targeted recruitment will be conducted at the local high schools to encourage applications from students from groups underrepresented in these fields. Co-curricular activities are also integrated into the program to provide academic, social, and emotional support to students. These activities include, but are not limited to, Career Overviews, Transfer Training, programming competitions, robotics kits, and faculty mentoring. The co-curricular activities will increase the retention rate (expected to be at least 95%) through the faculty mentoring and peer connection. Transfer rates are expected to be at least 35% through the implementation of Transfer Training sessions. Graduation rates are expected to be at least 80% with an increased understanding of career options through the Career Overview sessions and reinforced learning of the curricula. The effectiveness of the activities will be determined based on the student outcomes of the scholarship cohorts compared against other student populations at the College and through annual surveys. 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.