Promoting Pre- and Post-transfer Success in STEM at Hispanic Serving Institutions

国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目是加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺分校与巴斯托学院、沙漠学院、帝国谷学院和圣贝纳迪诺山谷学院四所社区学院合作的项目。通过转移合作，这五个西班牙裔服务机构/少数族裔服务机构将共同为南加州内陆收入最低的STEM专业的一些学生提供财政、课程和联合课程支持。该计划将为社区大学提供奖学金，并将正在攻读生物、化学、生物化学、计算机科学、工程学、地质学、数学或物理学位的学生转学。除了奖学金，该计划还将提供学术和其他支持，以增加这些在学业上有天赋的低收入学生的坚持不懈。每个校区的共同课程支持建立在现有项目的基础上，并基于对对学生成功做出最大贡献的因素的理解。支持活动包括转学前的指导、学习队列和CSUSB的研究活动。为可能无法获得工程学或计算机科学学位的低收入和有学术天赋的学生提供奖学金和支持，将有助于培养一支训练有素的劳动力队伍，为国家的经济福祉做出贡献。除了促进有才华的低收入学生的成功外，该项目还将增进人们对与留住、转移和获得学位相关的因素和活动的了解。每个参与校园提出的学生支持机制以及各机构之间的协调，为帮助来自高度弱势群体的学生获得STEM学位提供了一个独特的模式。目前对转学学生成功因素的了解有限，特别是对于服务于更多拉美裔学生的项目。同样，需要更多关于如何确保学生在转学到毕业之间取得成功的信息。该项目将研究转学和毕业率的成功趋势，并揭示该项目的哪些方面在这个拉美裔服务机构环境中最成功。这个项目的结果有助于了解哪些因素对这些有才华的低收入学生的成功最有影响。该项目的调查结果将被广泛传播，以帮助其他机构最大限度地提高STEM领域转学学生的成功。

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) project is a collaborative effort between California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) and four community colleges: Barstow College, College of the Desert, Imperial Valley College, and San Bernardino Valley College. Through a transfer collaborative these five Hispanic Serving Institutions/Minority Serving Institutions will work together to provide financial, curricular, and co-curricular support for some of Inland Southern California's lowest-income STEM majors. The program will provide scholarships to community college and transfer students who are pursuing degrees in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics or physics. In addition to scholarships, the program will provide academic and other support to increase the persistence of these academically talented, low-income students. The co-curricular support on each campus builds on existing programs and is informed by an understanding of factors that contribute most to student success. Support activities include mentoring prior to transfer, learning cohorts, and research activities at CSUSB. Scholarships and support for low-income and academically talented students, who may not otherwise be able to obtain engineering or computer science degrees, will help to produce a well-trained workforce that will contribute to the economic well being of the nation.In addition to promoting success of talented low-income students, the project will advance understanding about the factors and activities associated with improvements in retention, transfer, and degree attainment. The student support mechanisms proposed on each participating campus, and the coordination between institutions provide a unique model for helping students from a highly disadvantaged population to earn degrees in STEM. The current understanding of factors contributing to transfer student success is limited, particularly for programs serving larger numbers of Hispanic students. Similarly, more information is needed about ways to ensure student success between transfer and graduation. The project will study successful trends in transfer and graduation rates, and uncover what aspects of the program are most successful in this Hispanic Serving Institution environment. Results from this project can contribute to the body of knowledge about what factors most influence success for these talented low-income students. The findings from the program will be disseminated widely to help other institutions to maximize the success of transfer students in STEM fields.