Integrated Support and Community Engagement to Increase Undergraduate Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation in Physical Sciences

该项目由美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）项目资助，将支持韦伯州立大学表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生。在五年的资助期内，该计划将为30名攻读物理科学学士学位的学生提供奖学金，包括化学、地球科学、数学、物理、计算机科学和工程。该项目还将通过一个强调社区领导和参与发展的学术支持服务系统，支持这些学者毕业。学者们将分组完成他们的课程，参加每周一次的STEM研讨会课程，定期与教师导师会面，并参加领导机会。该项目的目标是将学者的四年毕业率从12%提高到50%。此外，该项目将调查和评估哪些干预措施对提高学生的成功和坚持完成学位最重要。该项目旨在降低低收入、成绩优异的学生未满足的经济需求，并实施基于证据的干预措施，以提高学生的成功。这些干预措施包括有针对性地招募STEM学位、学生学术群体、STEM教师导师，以及在学生通过该计划取得进展时对学生做出回应的STEM研讨会课程。该计划的一个重要方面是始终专注于让学者参与他们的社区，包括参与社区参与的学习项目。通过使用学生焦点小组，该项目将调查学生对STEM职业的看法，并在区域学生人口统计背景下评估这些干预措施的有效性。研究结果将提供形成性评估，以指导正在进行的项目改进，并将确定招募和留住未来学生的有效策略。这些结果也可以为其他旨在提高来自不同低收入人群的STEM学生的参与和成功的机构提供信息，这些人群的文化或宗教信仰可能会阻碍他们追求STEM学位。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Weber State University. Over the five years of funding, this project will provide scholarships to 30 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences including chemistry, geoscience, mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering. The program will also support the Scholars through graduation with a system of academic support services that emphasizes the development of community leadership and involvement. Scholars will complete their coursework in cohorts, attend a weekly STEM seminar course, meet regularly with faculty mentors, and participate in leadership opportunities. The goal of the project is to improve the four-year graduation rate of the Scholars from 12% to 50%. Moreover, the project will investigate and assess which interventions are the most significant to improve student success and persistence to degree completion for this population of students. This project aims to lower the unmet financial need of low-income, high-achieving students, and implement evidence-based interventions to enhance student success. The interventions include targeted recruitment to STEM degrees, student academic cohorts, STEM faculty mentors, and a STEM seminar course responsive to students as they progress through the program. An important aspect of the program is a consistent focus on engaging the Scholars in their community, including participation in community engaged learning projects. By using student focus groups, the project will investigate students' perceptions of STEM careers and assess the effectiveness of these interventions within the context of regional student demographics. The research results will provide formative assessment to guide ongoing project improvements and will identify effective strategies for recruiting and retaining future students. These results can also provide information to other institutions that aim to increase the participation and success of STEM students from diverse, low-income populations in which cultural or religious beliefs may discourage pursuit of a STEM degree.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.