Increasing the Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation of STEM Undergraduate Student, with Emphasis on First-Generation College Students

该项目将通过支持南达科他州矿业学校优秀低收入学生的留校和毕业，促进国家对熟练科学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。南达科他州矿业学院招收的一年级学生中，约有三分之一是第一代大学生。平均而言，这些第一代学生的持久率比父母在高等教育中有过成功经历的学生低得多。尽管平均而言，该学院约50%的本科生在五年内获得学士学位，但只有约24%的第一代学生做到了这一点。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为至少35名攻读工程、科学或技术学士学位的全日制或兼职学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将被分两组录取，并获得最多四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在帮助奖学金获得者顺利通过高等教育系统从录取到毕业。学术和社会支持将从招聘开始，包括由训练有素的导师进行指导。该项目预计，根据学生群体的人口统计数据，至少三分之一的奖学金获得者将是第一代学生。该项目将检验这样一种假设，即第一代STEM本科生的成功不受他们的兴趣或能力的限制，而是受复杂的高等教育系统本身的限制。此外，该项目预测，支持学者的能力，以适应他们的大学经历将增加他们的毅力和毕业。许多第一代本科生来自低收入、不同背景。因此，该项目的一个重要的更广泛的影响来自其帮助增加STEM劳动力的人才多样性的潜力。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。该项目有三个具体目标：1)连接现有的校园学术资源，以提高学生的成功，特别是第一代学生的成功；2)通过创建学生、教职员工和学者信任的网络，加强学者与校园的社交联系；以及3)提供基于需要的奖学金，以减轻经济负担，并允许学者优先考虑他们的教育。项目活动旨在支持学者开发更高的情绪智力，这将通过一种经过科学验证的工具进行评估，该工具检查个人的社交和情绪优势和弱点(EQ-i2.0)。利用基于证据的复原力研究，该项目将实施与第一代学生特别相关的支持。据预测，该项目的研究结果将表明，情商的提高与留校率/毕业率之间存在正相关关系。项目成果将通过出版物、会议报告、国家科学基金会S-STEM会议和项目具体网页在全国范围内传播。其中包括由一家私人咨询公司进行形成性和终结性项目评估的计划。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 skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at South Dakota School of Mines. About a third of first-year students enrolled in the South Dakota School of Mines are first-generation college students. On average, these first-generation students persist at a much lower rate than students whose parents have had successful experiences in higher education. Although, on average, about 50% of the School’s undergraduate students earn bachelor’s degrees within five years, only about 24% of first-generation students do so. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to at least 35 different full- or part-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering, science, or technology. The Scholars will be admitted in two cohorts and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project intends to help the Scholars successfully navigate the higher education system from admission to graduation. Academic and social support will begin at recruitment and include mentoring by trained mentors. The project expects that, reflecting demographics of the student body, at least a third of the Scholars will be first-generation students. The project will test the hypothesis that the success of first-generation STEM undergraduates is not limited by their interests or ability, but by the complex higher education system itself. Furthermore, the project predicts that supporting Scholar’s ability to navigate their college experience will increase their persistence and graduation. Many first-generation undergraduates are from low income, diverse backgrounds. As a result, a significant broader impact of the project arises from its potential to help increase the diversity of talent 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 project has three specific aims: 1) connect existing campus academic resources to enhance student success, particularly of first-generation students; 2) bolster Scholars’ social connectivity to campus by creating a network of students, faculty, and staff that Scholars trust; and 3) provide need-based scholarships to relieve financial burden and allow Scholars to prioritize their education. The project activities are designed to support Scholars’ development of greater emotional intelligence, which will be assessed by a scientifically validated instrument that examines an individual’s social and emotional strengths and weaknesses (EQ-i2.0). Using evidence-based resiliency research, the project will implement supports that are particularly relevant to first-generation students. It is predicted that the project’s research findings will demonstrate a positive correlation between increases in emotional intelligence and retention/graduation rates. Project findings will be disseminated nationally through publications, conference presentations, NSF S-STEM meetings, and a project specific webpage. A plan is included for formative and summative project evaluation by a private consulting firm. 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.