Alleviating Transfer Shock in Community College STEM Students

在国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)计划的资助下，该项目将支持北卡罗来纳州加斯顿学院表现突出、有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。该项目旨在向30名不同的STEM学生颁发为期五年的90个一年奖学金；社区学院将提供最多两年的支持，在转到四年制STEM学位课程后，支持最多两个学期。该项目的目的是提高加斯顿大学理工学院副学士学位课程学生的留存率、课程成就率、学位获得率和转学成就率。社区大学是许多在STEM职业生涯中代表性不足的低收入和人口群体接受高等教育的切入点。因此，通过确定在社区学院和转学后最有效地促进学生成功的做法，该项目可以为社区学院及其大学合作伙伴提供一个模式。该计划将以廷托的学术和社会融合模型为理论基础，开展活动，建立学生的学术文化资本，保持学生对STEM的兴趣，并提高学生在STEM专业的成功，特别是针对代表性不足的人群。这些活动包括以学习社区参与、专业辅导、教师指导、成功指导和有针对性的建议的形式提供的学术支持，以及支持STEM身份形成的共同课程活动。转学后，队列毕业生将通过虚拟辅导和基于网络的讨论板与他们原来的支持网络保持联系，从而在学术和社会上受益，他们可以通过这些论坛分享经验，找到校园资源，获得建议和支持，从而减少转学冲击的影响。许多活动，如参加学习社区，已被证明有效地提高了STEM专业学生的留校率和毕业率。然而，很少有研究考察保持与原有学习社区的联系对迁移冲击的影响。该项目旨在解决当前知识的这一差距，并继续促进对社区大学学生留住、院校间转学和学位获得相关活动的理解。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。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Gaston College in North Carolina. This project aims to award 90 one-year scholarships over five years to 30 different STEM students; support will be available for up to two years at the community college, and up to two semesters after transfer to a four-year STEM degree program. The aims of the project are to improve retention, course success, degree attainment, and transfer success of students in the Gaston College Associate of Science and Associate of Engineering degree programs. Community colleges are the entry point to higher education for many low income and demographic groups that are underrepresented in STEM careers. Thus, by identifying practices that most effectively promote student success both at the community college and after transfer, this project can provide a model for community colleges and their university partners. Using Tinto's model of academic and social integration as its theoretical basis, this program will implement activities that build students' academic cultural capital, maintain student interest in STEM, and increase student success in STEM majors, particularly for underrepresented populations. These activities include academic supports in the form of learning community participation, professional tutoring, faculty mentoring, success coaching, and targeted advising, as well as co-curricular activities that support STEM identity formation. After transfer, cohort graduates will benefit academically and socially by maintaining contact with their original support networks via virtual mentoring and web-based discussion boards through which they can share experiences, find campus resources, and get advice and support, thereby reducing the effects of transfer shock. Many of the activities, such as participation in learning communities, have been shown to be effective in increasing retention and graduation among STEM majors. However, little research has been done to examine the impact that maintaining a connection to the original learning community has on transfer shock. This project aims to address this gap in current knowledge and continue to advance understanding of activities associated with community college student retention, transfer between institutions, and degree attainment.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.