Financial, Mentoring, Curricular, and Co-Curricular Supports to Increase Student Completion of Transfer Degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Earth Science

国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)计划支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业。斯波坎社区学院的这个项目将为36名成绩优异的低收入学生提供经济、学术和专业支持，重点是农村高中的学生。这些学生将参加生物、化学或地球科学的副学士学位转移项目。STEM领域对更多大学毕业生的需求是有据可查的，但许多对这些学科感兴趣的学生进入大学后未能毕业。除了提供经济支持外，该项目还将鼓励这些学生参加旨在提高他们在斯波坎社区学院的成功并进入四年制大学攻读STEM学士学位的活动。活动将包括专门的学术咨询、辅导、同行和专业指导、本科生研究、有指导的职业探索和社区服务。与华盛顿州立大学教育学院的合作将有助于深入了解提高STEM学生成功率的有效干预措施，从而帮助该项目实现其目标。这项合作还将探索哪些方法有助于STEM学生在社区和四年制大学取得成功。预计该项目将支持学生的学业目标，并有助于满足地区商业和行业劳动力的需求。该项目将使用多种战略来改善对成绩优异的低收入学生的系统性招聘，并指导他们成功完成两年制的理科转学学位。通过这个项目提供的奖学金将为学生提供经济手段，让他们专注于自己的学术目标。这些奖学金，加上STEM教职员工的建议/指导以及课程/联合课程的支持，将增加学生的成功，衡量标准是学生坚持并完成生物科学、化学和地球科学的转学学位。项目评估研究的结果将为推动机构实践的变革提供见解，这些变革将提高斯波坎社区学院未来在招收有学术天赋的低收入学生和支持完成STEM转学学位方面的成功。通过该计划获得的知识将通过出版物和演示文稿传播，以促进提高STEM学生成功的国家目标，特别是在低收入学生中。该奖项反映了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。

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. This project at Spokane Community College will provide financial, academic, and professional support to 36 high achieving, low-income students, with emphasis on students from rural high schools. The students will be enrolled in associate degree transfer programs in biology, chemistry, or earth science. The need for more college graduates in STEM fields is well documented, yet many students who enter college interested in these subjects fail to graduate. In addition to providing financial support, this project will engage these students in activities designed to increase their success at Spokane Community College and matriculation to a four year college to pursue a bachelor's degree in STEM. Activities will include dedicated academic advising, tutoring, peer and professional mentoring, undergraduate research, guided career exploration, and community service. A collaboration with Washington State University College of Education will provide insight into effective interventions for increasing STEM student success rates, thus helping the project meet its goals. This collaboration will also explore which approaches contribute to STEM student success at community and four year colleges. It is expected that this project will support students' academic goals and help to meet regional business and industry workforce needs. The project will use multiple strategies to improve the systemic recruitment of high achieving, low-income students and guide their successful completion of a two-year transfer college degree in the sciences. Scholarships provided through this project will provide the economic means for students to focus on their academic goals. These scholarships, in combination with advising/mentoring by STEM faculty and curricular/co-curricular supports will increase student success as measured by the scholars' persistence and completion of transfer degrees in biological sciences, chemistry, and earth science. Results of the program evaluation studies will provide insights to drive changes in institutional practice that will improve Spokane Community College's future success in recruiting academically talented low-income students and supporting completion of STEM transfer degrees. The knowledge acquired through this program will be disseminated through publications and presentations to further the national goal of increasing STEM student success, particularly among low-income students.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.