Supporting Graduation of Undergraduate STEM Majors Through Scholarships, Mentoring, and Activities That Develop Students' Academic and Scientific Identity

该项目将有助于满足国家对高技能科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过支持巴里大学表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。该项目将为最多15名学生提供为期四年的奖学金。 这些学者将攻读生物学，化学，计算机信息科学，计算机科学或数学的学士学位。 学者们将参与活动，以帮助他们建立更大的归属感。 其中一项活动是夏桥计划，包括发展课程和社区建设活动。 此外，学者将得到同行导师和教师的支持，他们在实践中接受过培训，帮助学生在大学和STEM中培养更大的归属感。 该项目将保持行业和劳动力的合作伙伴关系，为学者提供进入STEM职业的途径。该项目包括一项评估计划，以衡量这些活动如何改善巴里大学的学生体验，这是一所少数民族服务机构，超过30%的学生是第一代，高达60%的学生获得联邦基于需求的贷款。以前的研究已经完成了类似的活动，在高度选择性的大学。 研究表明，这些支持活动可以缩小经济需求较高和较低学生之间的学业成绩差距差距。了解巴里大学是否可以达到同样的效果可以指导其他机构的努力，以增加招聘，保留，学生的成功，和有经济需要的学生的毕业率。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。 具体目标是：1）从迈阿密-戴德县和布劳沃德县的一级高中招募至少20名具有学术潜力的低收入学生参加夏桥计划; 2）向表现出学术成就，坚持和参与的学生颁发12至15份奖学金; 3）在实践中培训教师和同伴导师，以证明对低社会经济地位（低SES）的学生有积极的成果; 4）实施一个学习社区，通过基于证据的方法鼓励参与，这些方法被证明可以改善低SES学生的大学氛围; 5）为学者提供STEM参与机会，职业和研究实习以及与行业的联系; 6）实现保留，毕业和安置基准（80%保留; 60%四年毕业; 80%的学者在毕业后一年内从事STEM工作或高等教育）。 该项目团队将使用混合方法的方法来检查干预措施的有效性，以提高成就，福祉，并保留来自低收入背景的STEM学生在少数民族服务机构。该研究的结果，沿着对编程的迭代评估，可以帮助提高全国范围内这一学生群体的成功率，从而为多样化，训练有素，具有全球竞争力的STEM劳动力做出贡献。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for highly skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Barry University. The project will provide four-year scholarships to a single cohort of up to 15 students. These Scholars will pursue Bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer information science, computer science, or mathematics. Scholars will engage in activities to help them develop a greater sense of belonging. One of these activities is a summer bridge program that includes developmental courses and community-building activities. In addition, Scholars will have support from peer mentors and faculty who are trained in practices that help students develop a greater sense of belonging at the University and in STEM. The project will maintain industry and workforce partnerships to provide Scholars with pathways into STEM careers. The project includes an assessment plan to measure how well the activities have improved the student experience at Barry University, which is a minority-serving institution where more than 30% of students are first-generation, and up to 60% receive Federal need-based loans. Previous studies have been done of similar activities at highly selective universities. The studies show that these support activities can reduce the gap in academic outcomes between students with higher and lower financial need. Understanding whether the same effects can be achieved at Barry University can guide efforts by other institutions to increase recruitment, retention, student success, and graduation rates of students with financial need.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims are to: 1) recruit at least twenty low-income students with academic potential from Title I high schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to the Summer Bridge Program; 2) award twelve to fifteen scholarships to students who demonstrate academic achievement, persistence, and engagement; 3) train faculty and peer mentors in practices shown to have positive outcomes for students with low-socio-economic status (low-SES); 4) implement a learning community that encourages engagement through evidence-based approaches proven to improve the university climate for low-SES students; 5) provide Scholars with STEM-engagement opportunities, career and research internships, and connections to industry; and 6) achieve retention, graduation, and placement benchmarks (80% retention; 60% four-year graduation; 80% of Scholars in STEM jobs or advanced education within a year of graduation). The project team will use a mixed-methods approach to examine the effectiveness of the interventions at improving achievement, well-being, and retention of STEM students from low-income backgrounds at a minority-serving institution. The results of the study, along with iterative evaluations of programming, can help to improve the success of this student population nationwide, thereby contributing to a diverse, highly trained, globally competitive STEM workforce. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of 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.