Scholarships and Enhanced Mentoring to Support Graduation of Students in Science and Mathematics

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划支持攻读STEM学位的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。北伊利诺伊大学的S-STEM项目将提供奖学金和加强指导，以支持生物科学、化学和生物化学、计算机科学、地球科学、数学或物理专业的学生毕业。在五年的时间里，该项目将从伊利诺斯州社区大学系统即将升学的三年级学生和转校生中选出46名学者。这个社区学院系统是全国第三大，每年为100多万学生提供服务。学生支持将以以学生群体和师生对为中心的指导结构为特色，并辅以研究机会。学生团队将定期会面，并由经验丰富的教师、同行、工业和政府实验室导师指导。该项目有可能增加对影响学生参与学术活动和坚持在STEM领域获得学位的个人和机构环境的理解。该项目旨在促进对多种基于证据的高影响力实践在提高高年级STEM学生的坚持和毕业方面所起作用的理解。该项目利用现有的基础设施（包括NSF STEP和REU计划），并为学生提供指导计划，其中包括教师与学生配对，获得研究经验，以及每周的队列会议，以帮助学生实现他们的目标并发挥他们的最高学术潜力。该计划旨在支持学生的自我效能感和科学身份，以及建立技术和专业发展的基本技能（即时间管理，任务优先级，科学素养，批判性思维，科学写作和演讲，领导能力和简历写作）。学生还将与来自工业、政府和学术实验室的校友和领导者建立联系，以支持他们的专业发展的下一步。由社会认知职业理论指导的定性研究将产生关于个人和环境因素的知识，包括大学内部和外部因素，这些因素导致经济上处于不利地位的学生坚持学习科学和数学。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 pursuing STEM degrees. This S-STEM project at Northern Illinois University will provide scholarships and enhanced mentoring to support graduation of students in biological sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, computer sciences, geosciences, mathematics, or physics. Over a period of five years, the project will select forty-six Scholars from the population of rising juniors and transfer students from Illinois' community college system. This community college system is the third-largest in the country, serving more than one million students each year. Student support will feature a mentoring structure centered around student cohorts and student-faculty pairs, augmented by research opportunities. Student cohorts will meet regularly and will be guided by experienced faculty, near-peer, industrial, and government laboratory mentors. This project has the potential to increase understanding of the personal and institutional circumstances that affect students' participation in academic activities and persistence to degrees in STEM fields. This project aims to advance understanding of the role that multiple evidence-based, high impact practices play in improving persistence and graduation of upper-division STEM students. The project leverages existing infrastructure (including NSF STEP and REU programs) and offers students a mentoring program that includes faculty-student pairs, access to research experiences, and weekly cohort meetings to help students achieve their goals and reach their highest academic potential. The program is structured to support students' self-efficacy and science identity, as well as to build essential skills for technical and professional development (i.e., time management, task prioritization, scientific literacy, critical thinking, scientific writing and speaking, leadership, and resume writing). Students will also network with alumni and leaders from industrial, government, and academic laboratories to support the next steps in their professional development. Qualitative research guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory will generate knowledge about the personal and contextual factors, both internal and external to the university, that lead to persistence of economically disadvantaged students in science and mathematics.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.