Science and Information Technology Scholars: Recruiting, Retaining, and Graduating Biology, Computer Science, and Cybersecurity Students to Meet Workforce Needs

该项目将有助于满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在费利西亚大学证明经济需要这样做。 在五年的时间里，该项目将为16名学生提供奖学金和其他支持。 这些学生将攻读生物学、计算机科学或网络安全的学士学位。 除了奖学金，学者将有机会获得学术和社会支持，包括第一年和第二年的经验课程，多年的研究经验，教师咨询，以及正式的实习和导师计划。 Felician大学是一所西班牙裔服务机构，女学生比例很大。 因此，该项目有可能扩大STEM领域和STEM劳动力的参与。 该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。 该计划有三个具体目标：1）招募并招收16名生物学，计算机科学和/或网络安全专业的学生; 2）保留并毕业至少13名学者; 3）准备并使学者能够在毕业后六个月内进入STEM劳动力或STEM研究生课程。为了产生新的知识，该项目将调查综合学术咨询模式在提高学生保留率和完成率方面的有效性。 研究结果可以帮助指导其他小型西班牙裔和少数民族服务机构，旨在提高学生的保留和毕业。结果将被广泛传播，以扩大建立师生关系的最佳实践的研究基础，以提高保留率，持久性，学生的成功，并安置到STEM职业或STEM研究生课程。 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 well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Felician University. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships and other supports to sixteen students. These students will pursue bachelor’s degrees in biology, computer science, or cybersecurity. In addition to scholarships, Scholars will have access to academic and social supports, including first- and second-year experience courses, multi-year research experiences, faculty advising, and a formalized internship and mentorship program. Felician University is a Hispanic-serving Institution with a large proportion of female students. As a result, the project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and in the STEM workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The program has three specific aims: 1) recruit and enroll sixteen students majoring in biology, computer science, and/or cybersecurity; 2) retain and graduate at least thirteen Scholars; 3) prepare and enable the Scholars to enter the STEM workforce or STEM graduate programs within six months of graduation. To generate new knowledge, the project will investigate the effectiveness of the Integrative Academic Advising model in increasing student retention and completion. The findings can help guide other small Hispanic- and minority-serving institutions that aim to increase student retention and graduation. The results will be broadly disseminated to expand the research base on best practices for building student-faculty relationships to increase retention, persistence, student success, and placement into STEM careers or STEM graduate programs. 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.