Scholarships, Mentoring, and Career Development to Support Attainment of Software Engineering Graduate Degrees

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在中央康涅狄格州州立大学证明经济需要的保留和毕业。在五年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读软件工程硕士学位的全日制和非全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将获得奖学金支持长达一年的先决条件课程，根据需要，长达两年的时间来完成全日制或长达三年的半时制学位。项目活动将侧重于维持工程研究生的三个战略：征聘、指导和支持以及职业发展。该项目旨在吸引具有广泛STEM经验的学者，并为他们提供一个独特的机会，将他们的跨学科背景与软件工程研究联合收割机相结合。将学者作为队列录取将创造一个支持性的环境，支持学者的学术成功，保留和及时毕业。该项目建立在大学成功的S-STEM项目的基础上，该项目建立了一个运作良好的学生支持基础设施。它还建立在教师和工作人员在这些以前的项目的经验，结合和改进的经验教训，到目前为止。通过支持来自非传统和跨学科背景的低收入高成就研究生获得高级学位，该项目有可能增加软件行业的劳动力多样性，并有助于解决全国软件专业人员短缺的问题。该项目将支持研究，实施，课程和课外活动的评估，导致低收入的学术天才研究生的学术成就的提高。拟议的战略与高等教育的现有做法是一致的，导致低收入学生，包括那些来自历史上代表性不足的群体的学生成功地坚持下去。该项目将有助于解决一个未充分研究的研究问题，即作为一个软件工程专业的身份水平与学术才华，低收入研究生的毕业率之间的关系。研究小组将采用混合方法，收集定量和定性数据，并将采用两轮数据收集计划。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 by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Central Connecticut State University. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing master’s degrees in Software Engineering. Scholars will receive scholarship support for up to one year of prerequisite coursework, as needed, and up to two years to complete the degree on a full-time basis or up to three years on a half-time basis. Project activities will focus on three strategies for sustaining engineering graduate students: recruitment, mentoring and support, and career development. The project will be designed to attract Scholars with a broad range of STEM experiences and offer them a unique opportunity to combine their interdisciplinary background with the study of software engineering. Admitting Scholars as cohorts will create a supportive environment that supports Scholars’ academic success, retention, and timely graduation. This project builds upon successful prior S-STEM projects at the University, which established a well-functioning student support infrastructure. It also builds upon the faculty and staff experience in these previous projects, incorporating and improving upon the lessons learned so far. By supporting advanced degree attainment of low-income high achieving graduate students from non-traditional and interdisciplinary backgrounds, the project has the potential to increase workforce diversity in the software industry and help to address the national shortage of software professionals.The project will support the study, implementation, and evaluation of curricular and co-curricular activities leading to the improved academic success of low-income academically talented graduate students. The proposed strategies are consistent with existing practices in higher education leading to the successful persistence of low-income students, including those from historically underrepresented groups. The project will help address an under-studied research question regarding the relationship between the level of identity as a software engineering professional and graduation rates for academically talented, low income graduate students. The research team will use a mixed-methods approach that will collect both quantitative and qualitative data and will employ a two-round data collection plan. 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.