STEP Forward: STEM Talent Expansion Program for Women and Under Represented Group Recruitment and Retention Development

这个项目是基于这样一个前提，即今天的许多青年和年轻人没有认识到在科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）的职业生涯的机会和回报，从来没有见过一个STEM专业，也不知道什么样的工作。 此外，一些对STEM感兴趣的学生认为，他们不应该因为性别、种族背景、教育环境或生活阶段而攻读STEM学位。最后，一些本科STEM专业的学生可能无法完成STEM学位，因为他们对有效的学习习惯了解不足，或者缺乏资源来支持他们在整个学生时代。STEP项目正在创建和支持一个保留和招聘计划，以应对所有这些障碍。 该计划是建立在现有的成功的本科生招聘和保留计划在大学整合。新的保留工作包括创建学生团体，专注于他们的主要活动（例如本科生研究经验研讨会，SURE），本科生研究机会和新的新生项目课程。招聘计划包括Step Forward（针对11和12年级学生的夏令营）、女性工程师（WIE-UH）、进入STEM女学生的支持系统、为现在和未来的高中数学和科学教师举办的一系列研讨会，以及新生水平的本科研究机会。这些努力旨在提高所有学生的本科体验质量，并吸引新的和通常代表性不足的学生进入STEM领域。扩大STEM专业的参与是该项目的一个主要目标。休斯顿大学已经是美国最多样化的城市研究机构之一。然而，项目正在继续努力，从代表性不足的群体中招募更多的学生进入STEM领域，特别是那些将成为家庭第一代大学生的学生。该项目战略的一个主要主题是创造各种研究经验。WIE-UH计划包括女教师介绍他们的研究工作。高中教师研讨会的主要目标是让教师了解大学正在进行的广泛的STEM研究。SURE计划允许更多的本科生了解他们的主要领域的发现为基础的计划，而两个本科研究计划给他们中的一小部分人一对一指导我们的教师的研究经验的机会。

This project is based on the premise that many of today's youth and young adults do not recognize the opportunities and rewards of a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), have never met a STEM professional, and have no idea what kind of work one does. In addition, some students who are interested in STEM believe that they should not pursue a STEM degree because of their gender, ethnic background, educational environment, or stage of life. Finally, some undergraduate STEM majors may fail to complete a STEM degree due to insufficient knowledge about effective study habits or a lack of resources to support them throughout their student years. This STEP project is creating and supporting a retention and recruitment program to counter all of these barriers. The program is built on and integrated with existing successful undergraduate recruiting and retention programs at the university. New retention efforts include the creation of student groups focusing on activities in their major (e.g. Seminars for Undergraduate Research Experiences, SURE), undergraduate research opportunities, and a new freshmen project course. The recruiting programs include STEP Forward (a summer day camp for 11th and 12th graders, Women in Engineering (WIE-UH), a support system for entering female STEM students, a set of seminars for present and future high school math and science teachers, and a freshman level undergraduate research opportunity. These efforts are designed to both enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience for all students and to attract new and typically under-represented students into the STEM fields. Broadening participation in STEM majors is a major goal of this project. The University of Houston is already one of the most diverse urban research institutions in the nation. Project efforts are continuing, however, to recruit more students from underrepresented groups into STEM areas, particularly those who will be the first generation in college for their families. A dominant theme of the project's strategies is the creation of various research experiences. The WIE-UH program includes presentations by female faculty members to describe their research efforts. The principal goal of the seminars for the high school teachers is to acquaint the teachers with the broad range of STEM research being conducted at the University. The SURE program allows a larger number of undergraduates to learn about the discovery based programs in their major field, while the two undergraduate research programs give a smaller number of them the opportunity for one-on-one mentored research experiences with our faculty.