Supporting Low-Income Students for Success in STEM Careers

在国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目的资助下，该项目将支持西德克萨斯农工大学有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。该项目将满足在STEM领域招收、留住和研究生的需要，包括生物、化学和物理。该项目将为符合奖学金要求的两批15名学生(共30名)提供奖学金，包括一年级学生身份、SAT/ACT成绩、目标STEM领域的专业、高中排名、一份学术推荐信和一篇已评分的论文。学生支持活动包括同行指导、教师指导、关系指导、职业技能发展和领导力培训。该项目还将支持重新设计六门一年级的化学、生物和物理课程，以提高学生在这些入门课程中的成功。预计参与计划活动将有助于为奖学金获得者在毕业后进入STEM职业生涯或研究生课程做准备和鼓励。该项目有四个目标，分别是留住、成功完成入门课程、学生参与和毕业。第一个目标是到2024年将目标STEM领域的低收入、有学术天赋的学生的第一到第二学期和第一到第二年的保留率提高10%。第二个目标是提高学生在入门课程中的成功。第三个目标是到2024年将低收入学业天才学生的毕业率提高10%。第四个目标是提高学生对高影响力实践的参与度和参与度。学生参与度将通过全国学生参与度调查进行评估。该项目将在指导、非认知和领导技能发展以及课程重新设计方面使用基于证据的实践来实现这些目标。智力方面的贡献包括评估项目干预措施的综合效果在多大程度上影响了一年级/高年级学生参与、留住、毕业、高年级参与高影响力实践等领域的学者，以及检查学生参与和留住之间的相关性。该项目的结果将通过该系统的网站发布到德克萨斯农工机械系统，并通过科学会议和化学、物理和生物期刊上的文章在全国范围内传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 West Texas A&M University. The project will address the need to recruit, retain, and graduate students in STEM fields, including biology, chemistry, and physics. This project will provide scholarships to two cohorts of 15-students (30 total) who meet scholarship requirements that include first year student status, SAT/ACT scores, majoring in a target STEM field, high school rank, an academic recommendation letter, and a scored essay. Student support activities include peer mentoring, faculty mentoring, relational coaching, career skill development, and leadership training. This project will also support a redesign of six first-year courses in chemistry, biology, and physics, with the goal of increasing student success in these gateway courses. It is expected that participation in program activities will help prepare and encourage the Scholars to enter STEM careers or graduate programs following graduation.The project has four objectives centered on retention, success in gateway courses, student engagement, and graduation. The first objective is to increase first to second semester and first to second year retention rates of low-income, academically-talented students in targeted STEM fields by 10% by 2024. The second objective is to increase student success in gateway courses. The third objective is to increase low income academically talented student graduation rates by 10% by 2024. The fourth objective is to increase student engagement and participation in High Impact Practices. Student engagement will be assessed with the National Survey on Student Engagement. This project will use evidence-based practices in mentoring, non-cognitive and leadership skill development, and course redesign to attain these objectives. Intellectual contributions include evaluating the extent to which the combined effect of project interventions affect scholars in areas including first-year/senior engagement, retention, graduation, senior participation in high impact practices, as well as examining the correlation between student engagement and retention. Results of this project will be disseminated to the Texas A&M System using the System website, and nationally via scientific conferences and articles in chemistry, physics, and biology journals.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.