Imagining Possibilities in Post-Secondary education and STEMM in Rural Appalachia

项目摘要 阿巴拉契亚农村是一个医疗服务不足的地区，那里的居民经历了大量的医疗保健 差距。由于阿巴拉契亚农村社区的与世隔绝的性质，内部的变化是 尤其重要的是。因此，将这些地区的居民吸引到生物医学、行为和 临床研究人员可能对减少该地区严重的健康差距至关重要。 然而，我们不能假设增加与科学和数学相关的兴趣和技能就足够了 以吸引来自该地区的学生从事这些职业。在全国范围内，来自低收入家庭的高中毕业生， 少数民族人口较少的农村学校(这是阿巴拉契亚大部分地区的特点)的大学入学率最低 (44%；国家学生信息交换中心[NCS]，2015)，建议与高等教育相关的障碍和支持 除了与科学有关的障碍和支持外，还必须解决一般的教育问题， 技术、工程、数学和医学(STEMM)相关职业。我们的长期目标是 这一努力是为了开发有效的干预措施，减少这些背景障碍，并增加 对一般的中学后教育和特别是STEMM的支持和兴趣 阿巴拉契亚青年。我们的目标是确定这种多方面的干预在多大程度上 战略导致了攻读STEMM本科学位的意愿增加。我们的假设是 经历了这种干预的学生将在这些重要的个人内部表现出增加 社会认知因素及其与学生攻读大专学位的意向比较 没有暴露在这样的干预之下。我们的具体目标是1)增加科学认同感，以及自我 与上大学和STEMM相关的效能感、结果预期信念和兴趣；2)教授技能 帮助学生克服障碍，增加对继续接受高等教育的支持，并 STEMM职业生涯；以及3)决定多个项目经历对大学升学的相加效应 和STEMM信仰。我们将使用一个非常匹配的对照组来比较那些获得 对那些不这么做的人进行干预。实现这些目标将为学校提供具体的工具 在阿巴拉契亚农村，也许还有其他农村地区，用来增加他们的学生数量 具备加入高增长生物医学和临床研究行业所需的技能 劳动力。

Project Summary Rural Appalachia is a medically underserved area whose residents experience significant healthcare disparities. Because of the insular nature of rural Appalachian communities, change from within is particularly important. Thus, attracting residents from these areas to the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research workforce may be essential for reducing the critical health disparities in the region. However, we cannot assume that increasing science and math-related interest and skills will be sufficient to attract students from this region to these careers. Nationwide, high school graduates from low-income, low-minority, rural schools (which describes much of Appalachia) have the lowest college enrollment rate (44%; National Student Clearinghouse [NCS], 2015), suggesting barriers and supports related to higher education in general must be addressed in addition to barriers and supports related to science, technology, engineering, math, and medical science (STEMM) related careers. Our long-range goal in this effort is to develop efficacious interventions that reduce these contextual barriers and increase supports for and interest in both post-secondary education in general and STEMM in particular among Appalachian youth. Our objective is to determine the extent to which such a multifaceted intervention strategy leads to increased intentions to pursue an undergraduate STEMM degree. Our hypothesis is that students who experience such interventions will show increases in these important intrapersonal social-cognitive factors and in their intentions to pursue a postsecondary degree compared to students not exposed to such interventions. Our specific aims are to 1) Increase science identity, as well as self- efficacy, outcome expectation beliefs, and interests related to college-going and STEMM; 2) Teach skills to help students navigate barriers and increase supports for pursuing post-secondary education and STEMM careers; and 3) Determine the additive effects of multiple program experiences on college-going and STEMM beliefs. We will use a closely-matched comparison group to compare students who receive the interventions with those who do not. Achieving these aims will provide concrete tools for schools across rural Appalachia, and perhaps other rural regions, to use to increase the number of their students equipped with the skillsets required to join the high-growth biomedical and clinical research industry workforce.