Achieving Change in our Communities for Equity and Student Success (ACCESS) in STEM

在国家科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)Track 1计划的资助下，我们的STEM公平和学生成功社区(Access)实现变革计划将招收成绩优异的低收入学生成为华盛顿大学塔科马分校的STEM专业学生。该计划将通过提供重点指导、生活学习社区、基于课程的本科生研究体验和两年有针对性的奖学金支持，支持36名学生的留校和学业成功。辅导活动将包括三个12人组的小组和一对一教师辅导、技能研讨会，以及一个关于STEM中的公平和包容性的焦点小组，以帮助培养社区意识、认同感和赋权意识。总而言之，这项Access计划将提供支持和经验，使更多低收入、学业成绩优异的学生能够毕业于STEM学位，为劳动力带来有才华和技能的专业人才管道。此外，利用他们提高的文化能力，Access研究体验将使学生参与到影响当地美洲原住民部落的环境污染的跨学科、受社区使用启发的研究中。其目的是培养准入学者，帮助将STEM工作场所转变为一个更具包容性和更受欢迎的环境。项目团队将定量和定性地评估以公平和包容性为重点的指导的有效性，并结合社区参与、与社会相关的早期研究经验。这项研究的结果可能会为其他寻求支持低收入学生在STEM取得成功的机构提供参考。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Track 1 program, the Achieving Change in our Communities for Equity and Student Success (ACCESS) in STEM program will recruit high-achieving, low-income students to become STEM majors at the University of Washington at Tacoma. The program will support the retention and academic success of 36 students by providing focused mentoring, a living-learning community, course-based undergraduate research experiences, and two years of targeted scholarship support. Mentoring activities will include group and one-on-one faculty mentoring in three 12-person cohorts, skills workshops, and a focus group on equity and inclusion in STEM to help develop a sense of community, identity, and empowerment. Taken together, this ACCESS program will provide supports and experiences that enable more low-income, academically high achieving students to graduate with STEM degrees, bringing a pipeline of talented and skilled professionals into the workforce. In addition, using their increased cultural competencies, the ACCESS research experience will engage students in an interdisciplinary, community-use inspired study of environmental pollution that affects a local Native American tribe. The aim is to prepare ACCESS scholars to help transform the STEM workplace into a more inclusive and welcoming environment. The program team will quantitatively and qualitatively assess the effectiveness of equity- and inclusivity-focused mentoring, that is coupled with community-engaged, socially relevant, early research experiences. The results of this research may inform other institutions seeking to support the success of low-income students in STEM.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.