A Support Ecosystem to Expand Capabilities and Opportunities for STEM Undergraduates Following Hurricane Maria

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。波多黎各大学马亚奎斯分校的S-STEM项目将为工程学院和艺术与科学学院的26名学者提供为期3个学年（2018-2021）的奖学金，在项目期间共提供78项每年5000美元的奖学金。该提案旨在解决飓风玛丽亚过后STEM专业本科生面临的一些挑战。该项目将加强并为学生提供(1)经济支持，(2)学术支持，(3)社会情感支持，以提高留校率和毕业率。此外，项目团队将获得关于自然灾害后学生的复原力和毅力的重要知识，包括学术和社会情感支持系统在内的支持生态系统的重要性，以及仅靠经济援助不能提高学生成功的格言的有效性。该项目的目标是：(1)为有学术天赋的低收入STEM本科生提供经济、学术和社会情感支持；(2)适应和实施一个由成熟的财务、学术和社会情感支持策略组成的生态系统，并研究它们对留任、毕业和成功的影响；(3)为低收入STEM学生提供有效的循证课程活动的实施和可持续性。定量因素分析研究将分别检查三种类型的支持（经济，学术，社会情感）的贡献及其对学生成功，保留和毕业的协同效应。这项工作的一个关键成果将是深入了解自然灾害对本科生攻读STEM学位的影响，以及促进学生成功的系统方法的重要性。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。

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 S-STEM project at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez will support 26 scholars in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences for three academic years (2018-2021), totaling 78 annual scholarships of $5,000 over the project duration. The proposal seeks to address some of the challenges facing undergraduate STEM students in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The project will enhance and provide students with (1) financial support, (2) academic support, and (3) socio-emotional support to increase retention and graduation. In addition, the project team will generate important knowledge about student resilience and persistence after a natural disaster, the importance of an ecosystem of support that includes academic and socio-emotional support systems, and the validity of the adage that financial aid alone cannot increase student success. The goals of the project are: (1) to provide academically talented low-income undergraduate STEM students with financial, academic, and socio-emotional support; (2) to adapt and implement an ecosystem of proven financial, academic, and socio-emotional support strategies and to study their effects on retention, graduation, and success; and (3) to contribute to the implementation and sustainability of effective evidence-based curricular activities for low-income STEM students. A quantitative factor analytic study will examine the contributions of the three types of support (financial, academic, socio-emotional) separately and their synergistic effects on student success, retention, and graduation. A critical outcome of the effort will be insight into the effects of natural disaster on undergraduate students' pursuit of STEM degrees and the importance of a systemic approach to facilitating student success.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.