Engaging, Empowering, and Retaining New Scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

该项目将通过支持在纽约市立大学纽约市理工学院（City Tech）这一西班牙裔服务机构中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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做出贡献。该计划为期5年，每年提供40个奖学金，资助攻读应用化学、应用计算物理、应用数学和生物医学信息学学士学位或计算机科学和化学技术副学士学位的学生。学者有资格获得最多九个学期的学士学位和五个学期的副学士学位的支持。为了扩大STEM学位渠道，该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的强制性支持活动联系起来，包括加强学术和专业咨询、队列会议、本科生研究经历、研究生院准备和参加学科特定会议，提高STEM领域的保留率和毕业率。项目人员将鼓励奖学金获得者与STEM同龄人一起发展学习群体，并开展非学术活动，如充实和课外活动，旨在促进与整个社区的联系。由于城市科技是一所为少数族裔服务的机构，该项目将影响STEM本科和研究生课程中代表性不足的学生，尤其是女性，以及纽约市的劳动力。该项目还有望开发成功的循证干预措施，以支持这一更大的劳动力目标。这个项目有四个主要目标。首先，招收目标专业的学生，重点关注代表性不足的学生。第二，利用奖学金留住有学术天赋的低收入城市科技学生并让他们毕业。第三，提供全面的支持和计划活动，以促进及时毕业和专业STEM身份的形成。第四，增加从副学士到学士及以上学位课程的学生转学。该项目将为STEM学生提供五种基于证据的支持：a)增加研究经验；b)参与由STEM同龄人组成的学习社区；C)使用强大的同伴导师咨询和一对一的教师指导；d)与STEM研究人员和专业人士（特别强调妇女和其他未被充分代表的少数民族）举行研讨会和非正式会议，以及e)开发专门针对STEM学生的网站和博客。此外，教育文献可以从描述培养STEM身份的结构性因素的进一步研究中受益。该项目旨在通过确定学生在学术和非学术领域的经历的关键特征来填补这一空白，这些特征支持成功并有助于培养STEM身份。为了确保项目的影响最大化，一个独立的外部评估人员将进行形成性和总结性的项目评估，结果将通过会议、同行评审的研究期刊、项目网站和LinkedIn账户传播。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at CUNY New York City College of Technology (City Tech), a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund 40 scholarships per year to students pursuing bachelor's degrees in Applied Chemistry, Applied Computational Physics, Applied Mathematics and Biomedical Informatics or associate's degrees in Computer Science and Chemical Technology. Scholars are eligible for support for up to nine semesters for bachelor's degrees and five semesters for associate's degrees. With the goal of expanding the STEM degree pipeline, this project aims to improve retention and graduation in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective mandatory support activities, including enhanced academic and professional advising, cohort meetings, undergraduate research experiences, graduate school preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. Project personnel will encourage scholarship recipients to develop both learning cohorts with STEM peers and non-academic endeavors such as enrichment and extracurricular activities designed to foster a connection to the community at large. Because City Tech is a minority-serving institution, this project will impact underrepresented students, especially women, in STEM undergraduate and graduate programs as well as the the New York City workforce. This project is also expected to develop successful evidence-based interventions in support of this larger workforce aim.Four primary objectives inform this project. First, to recruit students in the targeted majors, focusing on underrepresented students. Second, to leverage scholarships to retain and graduate academically talented, low-income City Tech students. Third, to provide comprehensive support and programmatic activities to promote both timely progress to graduation and professional STEM identity formation. Fourth, to increase the transfer of students from associate to baccalaureate degree programs and beyond. The project will provide five evidence-based types of support to STEM students: a) increased exposure to research experiences; b) participation in a learning community of STEM peers; c) use of both robust peer-mentor counseling and one-on-one faculty mentoring; d) seminars and informal meetings with STEM researchers and professionals (especially emphasizing women and other underrepresented minorities), and e) the development of a website and a blog dedicated to STEM students. In addition, the educational literature can benefit from further studies describing structural factors that foster STEM identities. This project aims to fill this gap by identifying the key characteristics of student experiences in both academic and non-academic areas that support success and contribute to fostering a STEM identity. To ensure that the impact of the project is maximized, an independent external evaluator will conduct both formative and summative project assessments and results will be disseminated at conferences, via peer-reviewed research journals, and through a project website and LinkedIn accounts. 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.