Increasing Access and Diversity in STEM Programs

黑格斯敦社区学院（HCC）的S-STEM项目为各种STEM学科的学生提供服务，许多学位课程的学生都有资格获得S-STEM。HCC通过PI和两个部门主席协调工作，以确保公平有效地颁发奖学金，同时仍有项目协调员和主要教员参与奖学金的决定。项目目标包括将S-STEM全日制入学率提高30%，将S-STEM学生的保留率提高20%（与过去符合S-STEM条件的专业学生相比）。HCC还寻求提高完成/转学率以及少数族裔或女性全日制STEM学位课程学生的百分比。雄心勃勃的目标规定了S-STEM毕业生要么在S-STEM相关领域找到工作，要么在毕业一年内进入四年制大学的高比率。为了确保HCC实现其目标，学院正在实施“侵入式”针对S-STEM的建议，所有获奖者都需要参加S-STEM一学分研讨会，以及其他活动，如STEM俱乐部，实地考察和S-STEM学者表彰仪式。HCC致力于为S-STEM学生增加实习地点和四年衔接协议的数量；该项目还为从HCC毕业并转入四年制学院或大学的学生提供有限数量的奖学金。HCC的项目在智力上值得称道，因为它考察了奖学金和学术支持等支持对学生入学、保留、完成和成功的影响。项目评估计划的设计不仅仅是为了衡量活动是否发生，还包括它们是否有效。HCC还对学生进行了调查，以确定他们是如何了解S-STEM项目的，并确定哪些支持对他们的成功最重要。预计该项目的最大影响将通过HCC的阿巴拉契亚服务区STEM项目中学生，特别是代表性不足的学生的入学率，保留率和完成率的预计增加来证明。数据显示，该地区拥有学士学位的成年人比例非常低（约15%），而马里兰州的这一比例为35.7%，全国为28.6%。因此，该项目对于实现地方、区域和国家的目标尤其重要，这些目标是帮助更多的学生完成学位并转到进一步的学士学位学习和/或立即加入劳动力市场。

The S-STEM project at Hagerstown Community College(HCC) serves students in a variety of STEM disciplines and students in a number of degree programs are eligible for S-STEM. HCC coordinates efforts through the PI and two division chairs to ensure that scholarships are awarded equitably and efficiently, while still involving program coordinators and lead faculty members in scholarship decisions.Project objectives include raising S-STEM full-time enrollment rates by 30% and increasing retention rates for S-STEM students (compared to students in S-STEM-eligible majors in the past) by 20%. HCC also seeks to improve completion/transfer rates and the percentage of full-time STEM degree program students who are members of minority groups or female. Ambitious targets specify high rates at which S-STEM graduates will either find employment in a field related to S-STEM or enroll at a four-year institution within one year of graduation. In order to ensure that HCC achieves its goals, the college is implementing "intrusive" S-STEM-specific advising, an S-STEM one-credit seminar required for all awardees, and additional activities such as an STEM club, field trips, and an S-STEM scholar recognition ceremony. HCC works to increase the number of internship sites and four-year articulation agreements available to S-STEM students; the project also provides a limited number of scholarships for students who have graduated from HCC and have transferred to a four-year college or university. HCC's project is intellectually meritorious because it examines the effects of supports such as scholarships and academic supports on student enrollment, retention, completion, and success. The project evaluation plan is designed not just to measure whether activities occur, but also whether they are effective. HCC is also surveying students to determine how they learned about the S-STEM program and to identify which supports are most crucial to their success. The greatest impact of this project is expected to be demonstrated through projected increases in enrollment, retention, and completion rates of students, particularly underrepresented students, in STEM programs in HCC's Appalachian service area. Data indicate that a very low percentage of adults (~15%) in the region have bachelor's degrees, compared to 35.7% for Maryland as a whole and 28.6% in the nation. Therefore, the project is particularly crucial for achieving local, regional, and national goals of assisting more students to complete degrees and transfer to further baccalaureate studies and/or immediately join the workforce.