Expanding Career Pathways for Academically Talented Biology and Chemistry Undergraduates by Combining Financial Support with High-Impact Co-curricular Services

该项目将通过支持北卡罗来纳大学彭布罗克分校(UNCP)留住和毕业有明显经济需求的优秀低收入学生来促进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，该大学是一所历史上的印第安人机构，少数民族本科生总入学率为59.7%。在为期5年的项目学期中，该项目将服务于总共30名学生：3组10名学生，他们正在攻读生物或化学学士学位，被招募为新兴新生，并支持他们毕业。该项目将侧重于提高学者的自我效能感、STEM认同感、积极性和职业意识，并通过高影响力的联合课程支持服务为他们进入研究生院或STEM劳动力做好准备。这些服务包括接触职业道路、职业咨询、研究经验、教师指导以及由教师、研究生和专业导师提供的辅导。该项目还将产生重要的、更广泛的影响，支持联合国国家方案以少数民族为主的农村服务区的经济发展。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。三个主要目标决定了项目的执行。首先，通过财政支持和学术干预，识别、留住和研究生在生物和化学领域有经济需求的学生。第二，帮助学生设定个人目标并确定STEM的职业，然后提供实现这些目标所需的支持和经验。第三，支持学生过渡到STEM劳动力或研究生教育，并利用现有的校友劳动力，为未来的UNCP理科学生培养对STEM职业的持续兴趣。大多数UNCP学生来自当地的北卡罗来纳州东南部地区，这是一个农村、经济不景气的地区，大多数人的经济需求没有得到满足。UNCP是北卡罗来纳州系统中参与北卡罗来纳州承诺学费计划的三所机构之一，该计划为本州学生提供500美元的学费，为非本州学生提供2500美元的学费。这种情况提供了一个独特的机会来评估该项目拟议的战略和干预措施的重要性和影响，方法是将其结果与由低收入学生组成的对照组进行比较，这些学生正在利用NC Promise学费计划，但没有参加拟议的活动。因此，该项目的研究问题将着眼于了解哪些因素对坚持不懈和毕业后的就业最有积极作用。这项调查应该有助于确定农村、低收入、主要是少数族裔学生的STEM劳动力成功职业道路的预测因素，以及促进这种职业过渡的有效干预措施。国际和平研究所和小组预计，他们的项目成果可以向国家承诺姊妹机构以及具有类似特点的其他机构提供信息，并通过出版物和在区域和国家会议上的介绍来传播成果。利用调查、焦点小组和个人访谈相结合的方式，外部顾问将评估该项目在学生学业表现、活动和干预、对STEM途径和职业的认识和理解、STEM身份以及毕业后职业活动/安置等领域的成果。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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 the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP), an historically Native-American Indian institution, with a 59.7% overall minority undergraduate enrollment. Over the 5-year project term, the program will serve a total of 30 students: 3 cohorts of 10 students, who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Biology or Chemistry, recruited as rising freshmen and supported to graduation. This project will focus on increasing scholars' self-efficacy, STEM identity, motivation, career awareness and preparing them for entry into graduate school or the STEM workforce through high-impact co-curricular support services. Such services include exposure to career paths, career counseling, research experiences, faculty mentoring, and tutoring by faculty, graduate students, and professional tutors. This project will also exercise important broader impact by supporting the economic development of UNCP's rural, predominantly minority service region. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Three principle objectives inform the project's execution. First, to identify, retain, and graduate students with demonstrated financial need in the Biology and Chemistry fields through financial support and academic interventions. Second, to help students set personal goals and identify careers in STEM, then provide the support and experiences needed to work towards attainment of those goals. Third, to support students as they transition to the STEM workforce or graduate education and capitalize on an established alumni workforce to build sustained interest in STEM careers for future UNCP science students. The majority of UNCP students hail from the local Southeast North Carolina region, a rural, economically depressed region, and the majority have unmet financial need. UNCP is one of the three institutions in the UNC system participating in the North Carolina (NC) promise tuition plan which provides $500 tuition for in-state students and $2,500 for out-of-state students. This situation provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the importance and impact of the project's proposed strategies and interventions by comparing its results with a control group consisting of low-income students who are taking advantage of the NC promise tuition plan, but are not participating in the proposed activities. As such, the project's research questions will be geared toward understanding which factors most positively contribute to persistence and post-graduation placements. This investigation should help in identifying the predictors of successful STEM-workforce career paths for rural, low income, mostly minority students and effective interventions to promote such career transitions. The PI and team anticipate that their project's results can inform sister NC promise institutions, as well as other institutions of similar characteristics, with results being disseminated through publications and presentations at regional and national conferences. Using a combination of surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews, an external consultant will evaluate the project's outcomes in the areas of student academic performance, activities and interventions, awareness and understanding of STEM pathways and careers, STEM identity, and post-graduation career activities/placement. 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.